

J 4 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





. 



o w 






^--*. 



r^p, 




>■ 



A 



^r 



kx 



MIS S () U U I 



;;■-.-:"■ 



7 




HOW AND WHERE 

TO EARN A LIVING, 



{THIRD EDITION.} 



% %\t\t\\ 



'The Garden of the West." 



PRESENTING 



ff&£Jtg mOXtlx §£tK01tfttt0 



CONCERNING THE LANDS OK THE 



ATCHISON, TCPEKA & SANTA FE RAILROAD COMPANY, 



Southwestern Kansas. 
Bv R. L- THOMAS. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE COMPANY. 

1878. 




s 



,T4U 



TO THE READER. 



This is a book of facts. Its aim is to give information that is 
valuable to everybody who is concerned with the question, " How 
and Where to Earn a Living." It does not indulge in theories, nor 
in fancies, but tells what has been done and what can be done in 
south-western Kansas. It is not a plea for emigration to the lands 
of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, but it is the 
declaration of the Company that their lands are worthy of the atten- 
tion of everybody who is looking for a place where he can better his 
condition. This declaration is amply sustained by the testimony of 
disinterested parties, and by the affidavits of settlers. The larger 
part of the book is made up of reports of officers appointed by the 
State, and in no way the servants of the Company, except as their 
statements serve it. These statements may be considered reliable. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



Whoever is satisfied with merely getting a living will have no interest in 
these pages. This book is not intended for him. And if any reader wishes 
only to know how to earn a living, he need read no farther, for we give the 
answer in a single word : it is, Work. We have the very highest authority 
for this statement, besides the most convincing testimony of observation 
and experience. But if the question " AYhere will work pay best ? " con- 
cerns the reader, he will be amply repaid by studying the various statements 
and figures which are here presented. 

All we have to say here pertains to a country nearly two thousand miles 
away from the ''stern and rock-bound coast" where our Pilgrim Fathers 
landed ; but it is a goodly land, and what we shall have to say of it may 
persuade some of our readers to " go West." Lest, therefore, any of them 
should follow such persuasion, and be disappointed, we wish to be distinctly 
understood as not advising anything. We propose only to recite facts concern- 
ing Kansas in general, and concerning the Valley of the Arkansas River, in 
south-western Kansas, in particular. Readers of these facts and figures will 
act on their own judgment as to whether they had better stay in the East, 
or remove to this new country. 

OUR DOCTRIXE. 

While we do not propose to give advice, we will declare our creed, which 
we believe contains sound doctrine. 

1. If a man is getting a comfortable living for himself and his family 
where he is, and is happy and contented with that, he had better stay where 
he is. 

2. If hard work doesn't agree with a man, or if he can't get along, at 
least for a few years, without the luxuries and conveniences of New Eng- 
land, he had better not go West. * 

3. If one is liable to homesickness as soon as he gets out of sight of his 
"native rocks and hills," or if he is easily discouraged, the West is no place 

for him. 

4. If a man cannot eommand capital enough to equip or stock a small 
farm, he had better not undertake business in Kansas. 

5. If one has not pluck and perseverance enough to win success where 



4 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

everything but himself is favorable to him, he will surely fail " out West." 
Let him, if he hasn't these requisites, try to be content with his present con- 
dition, and make the best of it. By no means let him go West. 

6. If, on the other hand, a man is not satisfied where he is, and feels that 
his efforts to get on in the world might be more successful in a new and fer- 
tile country, where land is cheap and crops are large, it is well worth while 
for him to consider carefully the claims of the Arkansas Valley, in Kansas. 

7. If a man has "failed to get on " in the East, he had better take a true 
" account of stock " of himself before he begins anew. If the main cause 
of the failure is in himself, moving out West will only make the fact more 
apparent, and a greater failure will await him there. But if the conditions 
■of the community where he now lives are mainly accountable for it — such 
as the high price of land and of labor, and the small return for work and 
capital, — a change will be advantageous to him. In the West, all the con- 
ditions of a fortune are favorable. Yet wealth, there as elsewhere, is won 
only by work, but work will win it every time. Courage and constancy and 




capital are sure of a handsome profit to any one who will invest them in 
Kansas. 

8. If, after reading what has been done there, one believes that he can 
do as well as any other man, and decides to try his fortune in the Arkansas 
Valley, we can respect his judgment, and give him credit for knowing a 
good thing when he sees it. For it is a fact that no section of our great 
country gives to the plucky pioneer so great a promise of health, wealth, and 
happiness. 

THE ARKANSAS VALLEY. 

WHERE IT IS. 

Look at the map given with this book, and you will see that the Arkansas 
Valley is in fche south-western part of the State of Kansas. The Arkansas 
Ki ■•)•, rising in the Rocky Mountains, flows in an easterly and south-easterly 
direction about three hundred miles through Kansas, into the Indian Terri- 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 5 

tory, and on to the Mississippi. That part of the State which is watered by 
this great river is called the Arkansas Valley. Through the whole length 
of this valley, in Kansas, runs the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. 
Edwards County, which is the present extreme western limit of cultivation 
in this valley, is only thirty-six hours' ride from Chicago and St. Louis, fifty 
hours' ride from Pittsburgh, Pa., and three days' ride from New York City. 
The central position, geographically, that Kansas occupies, will be seen 
by the folding of a map of the United States, placing the eastern and western 
edges together, and folding it ; then double it from north to south ; open the 
map, and you will find that the folds have crossed each other near the centre 
of Kansas. By tracing the fold across the continent we find it follows the 
38th parallel of north latitude, which strikes the Atlantic coast just a little 
north of Richmond, Va., and entirely south of Maryland, giving the lati_ 
tude of central Kentucky and Virginia ; and' on the Pacific coast the fold 
strikes the ocean about one degree south of San Francisco. This practical 
illustration will show more forcibly than we could by the multiplication of 




words that in the "Upper Arkansas Valley," in south-western Kansas, lies 
the " golden mean " climate of the continent of North America, the temper- 
ate line, equally distant from the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Pacific 
Ocean on the west, — from the cold regions on the north, with their long, 
severe winters, requiring the most arduous labor during the short summers 
to provide for, and the hot, enervating south. It forms a part of that re- 
markable section which lies between the 38th and 44th parallels of north 
latitude, and has been appropriately named the "Great Central Belt of 
Population, Commerce, and Wealth." Study the map of the United States, 
and you will find within these lines of latitude all the great commercial 
cities, and here concentrated the mass of the population, and the greater 
proportion of the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial interests of 
the nation. Although embracing only one-fourth the area of the United 
States, the percentage of the population, of the industrial and commercial 
interests, of the taxable property, and of the newspapers, schools* and 



6 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

churches in this zone has steadily and uniformly increased. By the census 
of 1870, the Central Belt is found to contain two-thirds of the population, 
four-fifths of the real and personal property, three-fourths of the 
schools, public libraries, and newspapers, and four-fifths of the churches 
of the entire country. 

WHAT IT IS. 

The Arkansas Valley has been justly called the " Garden of the Conti- 
nent." As to its fertility and capacity for production as compared with 
other sections of the country, and with other parts of Kansas, we can safely 
say that leads them all. We refer the reader to the statistics given in an- 
other place, under the head of " Official Reports." We may mention here 

ITS ATTRACTIVE FEATURES. 
1. A LARGE BODY OF BEAUTIFUL, RICH BOTTOM-LAND. Bottom-land, 




in all countries and in all ages, has been esteemed the most durable, produc- 
tive, and valuable. The valley in proper, or bottom, is from ten to twenty 
miles in width. The higher lands upon either side are a kind of second 
bottom, or low, rolling prairies, with just enough undulation or swell to carry 
off the extra rainfalls. The soil of the valley proper, which is also marked 
by gentle swells, is chiefly a sandy loam, made up of such mineral elements 
as have been washed from the Rocky Mountains by the attrition of ages. 
It is a marked feature of this soil that it contains a much larger proportion 
of mineral matter than the prairie soils of Illinois and Iowa, which are 
chiefly vegetable mould. This is shown very plainly in the remarkable 
strength of the wheat and oat straw, which does not lodge or fall down, 
although it- grows very rank, reaching six feet in height. To those accus- 
tomed to a murky soil, there appears to be in places in this valley too much 
sand, but the experience of our farmers is directly the opposite. 



HOW AXD WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 7 

'2. Its remarkable healthfulxess. This is attributable largely to 
its altitude, near 1.500 feet above the level of the sea at Xewton, where the 
railroad first enters the valley, and rising uniformly from seven to eight feet- 
each mile, going west : reaching at Larned an altitude of 2,035 feet ; at the 
west line of the State of Kansas, 3,425 feet ; and at Pueblo, the present 
western terminus of the road, 4,764 feet. This altitude, with the gently- 
rolling surface of the country thoroughly drained, and the entire absence of 
stagnant water, or anything to breed malaria, secures a healthfulness and 
freedom from disease that alone make it one of the most attractive localities 
to make a home in. 

So important is the question of health, that life, even with wealth, is a 
continual agony without it. With health, industry, and prudence, all the 
blessings of life are attainable. 

the golden mean of climate. 

•3. In the attractive features of the Arkansas Yallev. we will class the 




climate. There is a very general desire on the part of the people to get 
away from extremes, — to find the golden mean, the temperate line lying 
between heat and cold. It is apparent that the Arkansas Valley, lying 
along the 38th parallel of latitude, is far enough south to secure a mild cli- 
mate ; but to fully appreciate its attractive climate, one mu: t understand 
that it is delightfully tempered, and made salubrious and healthy .by the 
rising altitude. The climate of the valley has proved particularly beneficial 
to consumptives, and persons afflicted with affections cf the throat, heart- 
disease, and dyspepsia. Many who have moved here in search of health, 
whose cases were considered almost hopeless East, have been restored, and 
manv others have been verv much benefited. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



ELEVATION OF PRINCIPAL STATIONS ABOVE SEA LEVEL ON ATCHISON, 
TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILROAD. 



Station. 



Feet. 



Kansas City Union Depot ,. . *653 

Atchison 735 

Valley Falls 908 

Topeka 878 

Carbondale 1,089 

Ruvlinaame 1,058 

Osage City 1,090 

Reading- 1,082 

Emporia 1,169 

Cottonwood 1,192 

Florence 1,287 

Peabody 1,367 

Newton 1,445 

Halstead 1,335 

Bunton 1,427 

Hutchinson 1,500 



Station. 



Feet. 



Sterling 1,613 

Raymond 1,099 

Ellinwood 1,759 

Great Bend 1,876 

Lamed 2,035 

Kinsley 2,224 

Dodge City 2,516 

Lakin 3,037 

Sargent 3,425 

Granada 3,485 

Las Animas 3,976 

La Junta 4,134 

Rocky Ford 4,246 

Apishapa 4,326 

Napieste 4,495 

Pueblo 4,764 



THE GREAT WHEAT COUNTRY. 

The Arkansas Valley is the great wheat region of Kansas, and of the 
West. Though of the comparatively newest portion of the State ■ — five of 
the nine counties embraced in the valley dating their organization back only 
to 1872, two to 1870, and two others to three years ago, — the wheat acreage 




ONTHSFROM THE BUFFALO RANGE 
AND HAPPY- 



in these nine counties in 1877, as proved by the Report of the State Board 
of Agriculture, was nearly one-fourth that of the entire State, the increase 
over the previous year, 1870, as shown by the same authority, being nearly 
four times greater than the net increase of the whole of Kansas! In bushels, 
the results in the Arkansas Valley, as compared to the State, are still more 
i\ liking. The wheat, crop of the Arkansas Valley for 1877 equals one-fourth 
that of the entire State while the increase of bushels in the valley is to the 
astonishing extent of twenty-three times the net increase of bushels in all 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 9 

the State of Kansas. As if this wonderful showing was not all-sufficient to 
forever settle the question as to south-western Kansas' incomparable preem- 
inence as the great wheat-raising section of the West, the average of the 
farthest south and newest counties in the State puts a clincher where it can 
never be displaced. The wheat average of Edwards County, the extreme 
southern limit of present cultivation in Kansas, as well as Pawnee County 
adjoining on the north, for 1877, is twenty-eight bushels per acre. Barton 
County comes next, with twenty-five bushels per acre ; then Rice, with 
twenty-two ; and next Reno, with nearly twenty. The other three counties 
were subjected to the last of the grasshopper visitation in the fall of 1876, 
and innumerable heavy rains the spring following ; hence their average was 
considerably reduced. The average of the nine counties of the Arkansas 
Valley, in the aggregate, for 1877, was, however, seventeen bushels to the 
acre. In the light of results, theory is a waste of wind. 

IT IS THE CHOICE OF SETTLERS. 

Generally persons intending to settle in the West carefully canvass the 
claims of various States and sections before buying land. The lands of this 
company have been chosen from all others by many hundreds of purchasers. 
Kansas leads all other States in the ratio of increase of population, and 
returns from the section of Kansas through which the Atchison, Topeka & 
Santa Fe Railroad runs show that the lands here spoken of are the choice of 
settlers. In his report to the stockholders in 1871, President Nickerson 
says : — 

The population is rapidly increasing along the road. Indeed, the ratio of 
increase is greater there than in any other part of the State. According to 
the tables of the last Report of the State Board of Agriculture, Kansas had, 
in 1870, a population of 361,234:, and, in 1874, it had 530,367. The increase 
in the four years was 166,113, or about forty-six per cent. But the same 
tables show that in thirteen of the eighteen counties through .which our 
road runs the increase was 41,221 (from 64,440 to 105,661), or more than 
sixty-four per cent. 

We here present the figures which show the increase of the cultivated 
area along our line. They are taken from the last Report of the State Board 
of Agriculture, and show the growth of a single year. 

In the State at large, in 1873, there were 3,031,957 acres under cultivation. 
In 1874 there were 3,669,769 acres, an increase of 638,812 acres, or twenty- 
one per cent. But in nine of the counties on our road the cultivated area, 
which in 1873 was 561,785 acres, had increased to 711,248 acres, an increase 
of 149,463 acres, or about thirty per cent. In the other counties, which are 
mostly new, the ratio is larger ; but it is not reckoned here. 

The same ratio of increase has been kept up since 1874, the Arkansas Val- 
ley leading all other sections of the country. The gain of 1875 over 1874, 
here, was 97,277 acres; of 1876 over 1875, 96,369 acres ; 1877 over 1876, 
257,310 'acres ; and the gain of 1878 over 1877 is still greater. 

The advancement of the Arkansas Valley in the past five years would 
scarcely be credited, were it not for the complete verification in the official 



10 



HOW AND WHERK TO EARN A LIVING. 



records of the State. There is no parallel to it upon the continent, and 
judging from the unequivocal indications, the progress the next five years 
will be even more remarkable. 

SEE HOW IT GROWS. 

The counties named here are those which lie in that portion of Kaaisas 
known as the Arkansas Yalley, and which we might call the New Kansas, 
because eight years ago it was scarce-ly known, except as a part of the Great 
American Desert. It owes its development and growth entirely to the 
building of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Ee Railroad. 



Counties. 


When 

Organ- 
ized. 


Population 
in 

1870. 


Population 
in 

1875. 


Population 
in 

1877. 




1859 
1865 
1855 
1872 
1870 
1871 
1870 
1872 
1871 
1872 
1874 
1872 
1874 


1,975 

768 

3,035 

"i,095"" 
22 
738 


3,116 

5,907 

9,852 

5,046 

8,310 

4,925 . 

6,205 

5,112 

2,453 

2,099 

451 
1,006 

234 


5,050 
10,251 
15,054 




Butler 




8,698 




13,414 

13,251 

11,242 

13,871 

6,279 

5,389 

2,467 










5 
2 




Rush 




179 


4,486 
905 


Edwards 






7,819 


54,716 


110,357 



It will be noted from the above that from Reno, west, in 1870, there were 
but 186 people, the same territory in 1877 comprising the homes of 33,950 
people. The gain in population in the Arkansas Valley in the one year 
1877, over 1876, was upwards of 22,000 ; and the tremendous tide of immi- 
gration pouring in so steadily for months bids fair to render the increase of 
1878 over 1877 even more remarkable. 

The sale of the company's lands for the first four months of 1878 amounted 
to 89,158 acres, or 4,000 acres more than the sales of the whole year 1877. 
Besides these sales, the government has disposed of immense tracts of land 
during the same period. At the United States office in Larned, the sales for 
January, February, and March, 1878, were 306,416 acres. At Wichita land 
office, the sales were 162,609 acres in the same months. The aggregate of 
acres thus disposed of by the government at these two offices in the first 
quarter of the year is 469,025 acres. This shows an increase of 224,881 
acres over the sales of 1877 for the first quarter. During 1877, the sales of 
the two offices aggregated 865,000 acres. These represent 8,500 claims, and 
an increase of 40,000 in population for the year, in the Arkansas Valley. 
Evidently this valley is the chosen spot of thousands for homes. 

Such indisputable facts as here presented cannot but instantly put to flight 
all false fears any may entertain of being forced to live in the wilderness 
upon locating in the Arkansas Valley. There are neighbors on all sides, 
hard-working, intelligent fanners from every State in the Union. Schools 
are more abundant than in many sections of country ten times the age of 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



11 



the valley. Churches dot the counties over, and civilization is the rule 
everywhere. The striking array of crop statistics from official records, given 
elsewhere, the marked increase of property, and unparalleled increase of pop- 
ulation all prove it beyond dispute. 

But as these homestead claims average 160 acres each, the record thus 
shows upwards of 2,000,000 acres of government land taken up in this valley 
in fifteen months. It is plain enough that all who are contemplating; the 
preemption of government land should prepare to act at once, or they will 
be left out in the cold. Those writing to A. S. Johnson, Topeka, Kansas, 
will receive by return mail a publication devoted to the matter of govern- 
ment lands, giving the different laws applying thereto, and much valuable 
information regarding its location, etc. 

The following tables show the official record of the land department of the 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company from the beginning of 
their sales. 





TOTAL SALES FROM MARCH 


1, 1871, TO 


JAN. 1, 


1878. 














Average 


No. of 

Sales. 


No. of 


Tear. 


Acres. 


Principal. 


Interest. 


Total. 


Price per 


Acres to 












Acre. 


each Sale. 


1871 


71,801.51 


$425,013.75 


§185,531.48 


§610,545.23 


§5.91 


472 


152.33 


1872 


45,328.81 


269,627.66 


109,545.23 


379,172.89 


5.90 


277 


164.79 


1873 


133,507.30 


748,977.25 


289,401.82 


1,038,379.07 


5.61 


830 


160.84 


1874 


200,459.96 


900,973.30 


327,459.68 


1,228,432.98 


4.54 


1,261 


159.96 


1875 


75,415.33 


416,409.85 


181,809.66 


598,219.51 


5.59 


656 


114.97 


1876 


122,201.17 


665,455.17 


255,568.98 


921,024.15 


5.44^ 


893 


136.82 


1877 


85,047.78 


423,477.49 


, 111,626.16 


535,103.65 


4.98 


607 


140.11 


Total, 


733,761.86 


$3,849,934.47 


.$1,460,943.01 


§5,310,877.48 


5.24§ 


4,996 


146.84 



The sales of January, February, March, and April, 1878, amounted to 
89,158 acres, as before stated, making a total sale of 822,919 acres by this 
company since its organization. 

SALES BY COUNTIES FROM MARCH 1, 1871, TO JAN. 1, 1878. 



Counties. 


Acres. 


Counties. 


Acres. 




320.28 

270.99 

2,641.66 

5,768.93 

24,445.30 

13,523.87 

136,130.83 

70,769.87 

132,245.55 

42,602.80 


Brought forward 


428,720.17 




46,276 87 






86,751 32 






78,033.34 

1,250.18 

3,394.28 . 
60,302.63 
24,472.91 


Butler 


Pratt 


Chase 




Marion 




McPherson 




Harvey 


Ford 


2,640.16 
1,920.08 


Sedgwick 


Hodgeman 


Carried forward 


428,720.17 


Total. 


733,761.86 



SALES BY COUNTIES FROM MARCH 1, 1871, TO MAY 1, 1878. 



Counties. 


Acres. 


Counties. 


Acres. 




137,370 
135,985 

98,872 
96,530 
75,942 
71,330 
60,040 
44,580 
30,330 
25,290 


Brought forward 


776,269 

13,880 

13,340 

5,840 


Harvey 


Barton 


Ford 


Reno 




Pawnee 


Pratt 


3,230 


McPherson 




2,680 


Rice 




2,640 


Sedgwick 


"Rush . . 


4,410 


Edwards 




360 


Butler.. 


Lvon 


270 


Carried forward 


776,269 


Total 


822,919 



12 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



LOCALITY FROM WHENCE PURCHASERS CAME, AND NUMBER OF ACRES 
PURCHASED FROM JAN. 1, 1877, TO MAY 1, 1878. 



"Where from. 


No. 


Acres. 


W here from. 


No. 


Acres. 




314 

1G8 
132 

93 
82 
50 

40 

34 

31 

27 

21 

9 

7 

6 


43,000 

35.480 

20,340 

18,380 

11,560 

10,620 

7,0G0 

4,440 

3,080 

3,760 

3,600 

2,920 

1,040 

1,040 

400 


Brought forward.. 
Massachusetts 


1,271 
5 
5 
5 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 
1 


167,380 
560 




Ohio 


1,440 
680 




Pennsylvania 


Georgia 


560 
560 




Maryland 


640 






680 






560 






240 




Virginia 


200 




160 




Delaware ' 


320 




New Hampshire 

Connecticut 


160 


Colorado'. 


60 


Carried forward . . 


1,271 


167,380 


Total 


1,314 


174,200 





BETTER CHANCES THAN" EVER BEFORE. 

We have heard Eastern people, who are discontented with their plodding 
life and have seen people who went West at an early day and grew rich, say, 
" Why didn't I go West and grow np with the country and get rich, as 

neighbor did? But it fe now too late." Such talk is entirely out of 

character. Better openings to emigrants are now presented in Kansas than 




ever before. The capacities of the country have been fully tested; it has 
been demonstrated to be one of the healthiest and best agricultural and 
stock-growing countries on the globe ; its two thousand miles of railroad have 
brought every section of the State accessible to market; alLthe severe strug- 
gles, sacrifices, and hardships incidental to pioneer life have been undergone, 
and schools, churches, and social organizations have been established, and 
the rudimenta] work of a new and independent community perfected. A per- 
son with capita] can buy improved farms or town property cheaper than he 
could make the same improvements himself. In all new countries property 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 13 

is constantly changing hands for various causes. But a small portion of the 
original settlers retain their first possessions. They improve farms and sell 
them. The man of means can now obtain excellent real estate bargains in 
Kansas, while the poor man can find homesteads and opportunities of pur- 
chasing lands of railroad companies on easy terms. A poor man coming to 
Kansas to secure a farm must expect to endure hardships and do hard work 
for some years before he can lead a life of ease. The field here for enterprise 
is unlimited. It is a poor place to wait for " something to turn up," but an 
excellent place to turn up something. All the avenues to trade, the profes- 
sions, agriculture, mechanism, and occupations of all kinds, are open, and 
inviting operatives. We are yet comparatively in our infancy, and the 
stranger who now comes here to seek a home can unite with us in celebrat- 
ing our maturity. 

ROOM ENOUGH YET. 

The State of Kansas is four hundred miles long, from east to west, and 
two hundred miles wide ; in other words, it is as long as the distance from 
Boston to Buffalo, and as wide as the distance from Boston to Albany. 

The area of Kansas is 81,318 square miles. Only five States have a larger 
area. Kansas has mpre square miles than Ohio, Indiana, Delaware, and Con- 
necticut combined. England and Scotland together contain 89,600 square 
miles, only 8,282 more than this single State. Kansas is an empire, — a giant 
still in its cradle. Of the 52,013,520 acres comprising its area, but two-thirds, 
28,094,295 acres, or sixty-eight per cent., are at present in the organized coun- 
ties ; wjiile of the latter amount only 5,595,305 acres are improved land, the 
rest being wild prairie. 

It is difficult to realize the exact meaning of these figures. Men are not 
as familiar with millions as with fives. On the supposition that Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio were thrown together, a similar statement would be that 
Pennsylvania was organized in counties, while Ohio was yet unsettled, and 
that only one eighth, thirteen per cent., of Pennsylvania, was under fence, or 
less than one-tenth, nine per cent., of both States. It is easier to distinguish 
the difference between the length of lines than between vast amounts 
expressed in figures. 

LOOK AT THESE LINES. 

Let us assume that a line one inch long represents 2,400,000 acres, the 

WHOLE AREA OF KANSAS WOULD BE SHOWN BY A LINE TWENTY-TWO 
INCHES IN LENGTH, THE AREA OF THE ORGANIZED COUNTIES BY ONE 
OF FIFTEEN INCHES, AND THE IMPROVED LAND BY ONE A FRACTION 

less than two inches long. Like the gentleman who did not leave 
Ireland because of " want," as he had plenty of it there, whatever this State 
may lack, it has a superabundance of unimproved territory. Ohio and 
Pennsylvania are not overcrowded with population. Their inhabitants 
apprehend no danger from starvation because of the inability of the soil to 
supply food. Kansas soil is as fertile as that of the best valleys in either, 



14 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

and its average acre is richer than their average acre ; so that it can certainly 
support as dense a population as they. "Were its density equal to theirs, it 
would now have 6.000,000 inhabitants, and still possess the same room for 
in-come rs enjoyed by the States named. 

Adding the 18,443,920 acres of the now unorganized counties to the 
2S,004,295.01 acres remaining untouched by the hand of the husbandman, we 
have yet to people and cultivate 46,448,215 acres, or 80+ per cent, of the 
entire State area. Of this area, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad 
Company have for sale more than 2,000,000 acres. The actual increase in 
acreage during the year just passed was 559,607. If the ratio of increase 
continues, the present generation will see all of Kansas as largely under cul- 
tivation as any State in the Union. 

But while there is room enough yet, it is a fact well known to the govern- 
ment, as to all observing "Western men, that the really valuable lands belong- 
ing to the general government are now limited, and that the remaining lands 
are rapidly being transferred to private hands, — the homesteader, preemptor, 
and settler of the West. Outside of the Indian Territory, there remains but 
a limited supply of really good agricultural lands in all the West, the 
choicest of which, for climate, soil, and health are to be found in the great 
Valley of the Arkansas. Nearly all the available government lands of the 
Arkansas Valley, within the grant of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe 
Railroad, are already taken up. 

THE OFFICIAL REPORTS 

Of the United States Department of Agriculture tell the Tale of the Wonderful 
Advancement of Kansas, as Compared to the Other States, as do the Official 
Reports of the State Board of Agriculture shoic the Remarkable Growth of the 
Arkansas Valley, as Compared icith Other Portions of Kansas. 

1S71 vs. 1876. 

In 1871, Kansas was the seventeenth State in the Union in the aggregate 
production of wheat ; in 1876, Kansas was the eighth. In 1871, the ninth 
in corn; in 1876, the fifth. In 1871, the fifteenth in rye ; in 1876, the first. 
In 1871, the fourteenth in oats ; in 1876, the ninth. In 1871, the nineteenth 
in barley ; in 1876, the fifth. These are the figures as taken from the official 
Reports of the United States Department of Agriculture, that for 1876 being 
the Aery latest report made by the department. 



Kansas had 13,816,000 more bushels of wheat in 1876 than in 1871, or 
257.000 bushels in excess of the combined increase in the twenty-four States, 
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New York, \e\v Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia. Ar- 
kansas, Texas, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska ; the total -wheat-crop of the United 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



15 



States being 56,634,100 more bushels in 1876 than in 1871. The increase of 
wheat product in Kansas was greater than that of any other State in the 
Union. Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin had less wheat in 1876 than in 
1871 by an aggregate of 4,000,000 bushels, while Iowa, with 1,181,542 more 
acres of wheat in 1876 than in 1871, had 800,000 bushels less. 

In 1872, as per the official Report of the State Board of Agriculture, the 
entire wheat acreage of the nine counties now constituting the Arkansas 
Valley was 163 acres. The same authority shows that the winter wheat 
acreage now sown for the harvest of 1878 reaches the enormous figures of 
358,690, and this, with the low estimate of 15,694 in spring wheat, makes 
the grand total of wheat acreage in the Arkansas Valley, in 1878, 374,384 to 
163 acres all told in 1872. In 1877, the wheat average per acre in the five 
counties at the west end of the valley — Barton, Pawnee, Edwards, Ford and 
Rush — was 20 bushels, while that of the valley entire was 15 bushels to the 
acre. Of the nine counties of the Arkansas Valley, McPherson, with 125 
acres of wheat in 1872, now has S8.266 acres. Harvey, with no wheat 
reported in 1S72, now has 36,4S0 acres. Sedgwick, with 26 acres in 1872, 
now -has 73,681 acres. Reno, with 2 acres in 1872, now has 52,972 acres. 
Rice, with ten acres in 1872, now has 42,189. Barton, with 18 acres in 1873, 




now has 37.602 acres. Pawnee, with 33 acres in 187-4, now has 18,968 acres. 
Edwards, with 206 acres in 1875, now has 3,112 ; and Rush, with 417 acres 
in 1875, now has 5,420 acres. The figures for the present acreage in Rice 
and Pawnee Counties are carefully-made estimates, the reports not being in 
at this writing. Cowley County has the greatest wheat acreage in the State, 
88,587. Sumner County has 74,036 acres, and Butler 59,358 acres. The first 
two counties named are upon the Arkansas River, and the third county upon 
a tributary ; and adding the acreage of these counties to that of the nine 
counties of the Arkansas Valley, and the total of wheat acreage of the twelve 
counties — all adjoining each other — is within a little over 100,000 bushels 
of the half of the entire wheat acreage of the State. The greatest increase 
of acreage of any county in the State is in Cowley, south-western Kansas, and 



16 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

the greatest decrease is in Dickinson, western Kansas. The great wheat belt 
of Kansas, and the greatest wheat belt in prospective on the continent, is the 
Arkansas Valley, south-western Kansas. 

The official Report of the department at AVashington for 1876 shows that 
while Kansas was the eighth State in the Union in average of bushels of 
wheat per acre, her aggregate production was greater by 144,500 bushels than 
the combined wheat production of the seven States ranking her in acreage. 
Kansas was also the eighth State in the Union in aggregate production, and 
had higher average per acre than any of the seven States having greater pro- 
duction. The average cash value of the wheat crop per acre in Kansas in 
1876, as shown by the department Report of that year, was $12.55, or $3.91 
per acre more than Illinois, $4.90 more than Minnesota, $1.33 more than In- 
diana, $7.06 more than Iowa, $3.46 more than Wisconsin, $4.16 more than 
Nebraska, 65 cents more than Oregon, $2.55 more than Kentucky, $4.76 
more than Arkansas, and from $2.95 to $4.59 more than the Southern States 
generally. The average yield of wheat in the United States was 10.4 bushels 
to the acre, while that of Kansas, as shown by the same authority, was 14.6 
bushels to the acre. The average value of wheat per acre in the United 
States was $10.86, while that of Kansas was $12.55. 

These statements may readily be verified by those so choosing, by simply 
turning to pages 91 to 104 of the Report of the United States Department of 
Agriculture for 1876, issued late in the fall of 1877. 

CORN. 

The increase of the corn product of Kansas, 1876 over 1871, was greater 
than that of any State in the Union, or two and a half times greater than 
that of Illinois, — more by upwards of 10,000,000 bushels than Illinois and 
Ohio together ; more by nearly 5,000,000 bushels than Iowa, Michigan, Wis- 
consin, and Minnesota combined, and nearly 20,000,000 more than Indiana, 
Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, and California. In 1876, Kansas 
led the United States in average of corn per acre, 43.5, and her product in 
the aggregate was twenty-one times greater than that of the ten States fol- 
lowing her in acreage. Fifth in aggregate of production, Kansas had ten 
times the number of bushels in New England entire ; upwards of 6,000,000 
bushels more than the Middle States ; more by a half million bushels than 
the combined product of the ten States of New York, Connecticut, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Min- 
nesota, and Nebraska, and one-third that of the entire South. The increase 
of the corn product of Kansas, 1877 over 1876, was something over forty per 
rent., and it is confidently believed that Kansas, again in 1877, led the 
I rnited States in average per acre. • 

The average cash value of the corn crop per acre in Kansas, in 1876, was 
$10.44, or $2.94 more than Iowa, 28 cents more than Minnesota, 24 cents 
inure than [ndiana, $2.89 more than Illinois, $2.34 more than Nebraska, $2.56 
more than Missouri, $1.08 more than Arkansas, and from $1.24 to $4.20 more 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 17 

than the Southern States generally. The average yield of corn per acre in 
the United States was 26.1, while that in Kansas was 43.5; the average value, 
$9.62, that of Kansas, $10.44. Of the increase in the corn acreage of the 
State, 1877 over 1876, one-seventh was in the nine counties of the Arkansas 
Valley, and of the entire corn acreage of the State, one-thirteenth was in the 
valley. Of the increase of bushels of corn in the State, the valley had nearly 
one-fourth. 

RYE. 

The increase of rye product in Kansas, 1876 over 1871, was, as of wheat 
and corn, the greatest of any State in the Union, and within a million and a 




ONE OF THOUSANDS. 

half bushels of the entire rye increase in the United States. The increase in 
Kansas alone was upwards of three times greater than all the other Western 
States combined, and her aggregate of production in 1876 the largest of all 
States, as was her average per acre larger than any other State. Xew York 
and Pennsylvania each had 65,000 more acres than Kansas, yet Kansas had a 
million more bushels than either. Kansas had nearly three quarters of a mill- 
ion more bushels than Illinois, the second State in production, and nearly six 
bushels more to the acre. Kansas had ten bushels to Iowa's one, and more 
than Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, and Xebraska 
combined. The average yield of rye in the United States was 13.8, while 
Kansas had 20.8 bushels to the acre. Of the rye acreage of Kansas in 1877, 
one-twelfth was in the Arkansas Talley. The average cash value of rye per 
acre in the United States in 1876 was $8.94, which was 24 cents more 
than Ohio, $3.34 more than Xebraska, $1.52 more than Iowa, $2.80 more 
than Virginia, 28 cents more than Indiana, 25 cents more than Arkansas, 
$1.17 more than Kentucky, 90 cents more than Michigan, 66 cents more than 
Illinois, 72 cents more than Minnesota, 51 cents more than Missouri, etc., etc. 



The increase of oats in Kansas, 1876 over 1871, was upwards of double 
that of Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, and Missouri combined, and within less 
than 200,000 bushels of that of Xew York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio combined. 
In 1876, Kansas was the fourth State in the Union in average to the acre, 
and lier aggregate of production was a million and a half more bushels than 



18 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

the four States combined having higher acreage. Kansas was ninth in 
aggregate of production, and had greater average per acre than any of the 
eight States leading her aggregate bushels. Kansas had 2.500,000 more 
bushels than all of Xew England combined, and over one and a half to 
every one bushel in Illinois. Her average was the highest of any Western 
or Southern State, — 5 bushels greater than Ohio, 9 greater than Indiana, 5 
greater than Xew Jersey and Delaware, 6 greater than Iowa, Xebraska, and 
Minnesota. 11 greater than Arkansas, etc., etc. Of the increase of the oat 
acreage of the State, 1877 over 1876, the Arkansas Valley had one-sixth, and 
though the State entire showed a decrease, the valley showed an increase. In 
bushels, the Arkansas Valley showed an increase nine times greater than 
that of the State as a whole. The average cash value of oats in 1876, in 
Kansas, was 86.97, which was 81.77 more than Illinois, 81-13 more than 
Iowa, 81-72 more than Missouri, $1.16' more than Xebraska, etc., etc. The 
average yield of oats to the acre in the United States in 1876 was 2-1 bushels, 
while that of Kansas was 31.7. 



The increase of barley in Kansas, 1876 over 1871, was upwards of 1,000,000 
bushels in excess of that of the States of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wis- 
consin, Missouri, Xebraska, Xew York, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Maine 
combined. Kansas, the eighth State in the Union in average per acre, had 
more than half a million more bushels than the six States having higher 
average per acre. In production, Kansas was fifth. With the exception of 
Iowa and Illinois, Kansas had more barley than any of the Western States ; 
upwards of double that of Ohio f more than four times that of Missouri, 
Xebraska, and Indiana ; and more than three times that of Pennsylvania. 
The average cash value of barley per acre in Kansas in 1876 was 810.57, or 
more by $1.72 than Illinois, 83.53 more than Xebraska, etc., etc. The aver- 
age yield of barley per acre in the United States was 21.9, while that of 
Kansas ^as 23.5. Of the total acreage of barley in the State in 1877, more 
than one-seventh was in the Arkansas Valley ; and, while the State as a whole 
showed a decrease of 2,407 acres, the valley showed an increase of 4,933 acres, 
and in bushels an increase of upwards of half the net increase of the 
State. 

In no one of the three leading grains, as shown by the department Report 
of 1876. did Kansas show an increase over 1871 of less than 1,750,000 bushels, 
running from that up to 80,000,000. In the three greatest of all marketable 
crops, Kansas led every State in the Union. 

OTHEB GRAINS, ETC. 

The official Reports show fully as striking results in other grains, vege- 
tables, <■><•. In L876 the average yield of buckwheat per acre in the United 
States was 14.5 bushels, while that of Kansas was 18; the average value 
$10.53, that of Kansas $1 1.1". Average yield of tobacco, 700 pounds; Kan- 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 19 

sas, 700 pounds. Average value, $52.33; Kansas, $70. Average yield of 
potatoes, 71.6 ; Kansas, 105. Average value, $48.14 ; Kansas, $52.50. 

GEXERAL SUMMARY. 

Of the entire acreage of wheat, corn, oats, barley, rye, and flax in the 
State in 1877, 4,124,096, 1,669,740 acres were upon the Santa Fe, while of 
the increase in the State over 1876, of 516,503 acres, 303,345, or upwards of 
one-half, were upon the Santa Fe. Of the grand total of bushels of the six 
crops in 1877 — 158,858,235, — 58,465,405 bushels were upon the Santa Fe, 
while of the increase in the State over 1876, of 43,613,527 bushels, 18,320,057 
bushels were upon the Santa Fe. In the light of the foregoing, it would be 
entirely superfluous to dilate upon the rank of the lands along the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad in Kansas. 

WHAT CAX BE DOXE WITH $1,000. 

The questions are often asked, How much money should a settler bring 
with him to start a farm and make a home in the Arkansas Valley? Or, 
What is the least amount with which it is safe to arrive in the Arkansas 
Valley to secure a farm and make a home ? For the information of such 
inquirers, we give a statement of about what could be done with $1,000. 
First payment on 160 acres, on the six-years' plan, say $150 ; house of two 
rooms and small kitchen, $250 ; team and harness, $180 ; breaking-plough, 
$22 ; harrow, $10 ; cow, $30 ; interest payment on land one year from pur- 
chase, $35 ; total, $677 ; leaving a balance of $323 for seed and support of 
family until crop can be raised. Xearly every family coming to Kansas to 
make a home has more or less furniture, farming implements, etc., which 
they can rarely sell to advantage. By inquiring of our nearest land agent 
they can ascertain cost of chartering a car to destination, or rate per 100 
pounds, and if the amount they will sacrifice on the sale of their goods is 
greater than the cost of transporting it to their new home, then they can 
readily see it will pay to bring these things along, and will find them very 
useful if money, with which to lay in a new supply, is scarce. 

The cost of starting on a farm in a new country of course depends largely 
on the size of the family, and the economy, energy, and perseverance of the 
farmer. A large percentage of our farmers have come to the Arkansas Val- 
ley with less than $1,000, and have done well. Many have come with less 
than $500, and made homes and farms. For a man of limited means, it is 
most advisable to come in the early spring. A week or two will get his 
house up, and his family settled, and then he is ready for business. No time 
is wasted in clearing the land of stumps and stones ; it lies all ready for the 
plough, entirely free from both, and the farmer commences at once turning 
over the sod. In a few weeks enough sod will be broken to enable him to 
put in a fair crop of barley, rye, or broom-corn (the latter does well on sod), 
in addition to vegetables, all of which will go far towards supporting, if it 
does not entirely support, his family during the summer and winter, and 



20 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

until next crop has matured. The ground broken and planted the first 
spring will be in good condition when crops are harvested in the fall to seed 
in winter wheat. In addition to what has been planted, an industrious 




THE FIRST CROP. 

farmer will break and have prepared enough ground during the summer to 
enable him to put at least fifty acres in wheat in the fall ; and this crop, when 
harvested in the following June, and marketed, gives him the ready money 
with which to meet current expenses, make necessary additions to his stock 
of implements, improvements on his farm, and provide enough for next pay- 
ment on his land. Within fifteen months from the time of his arrival on 
his new farm, the farmer has raised two crops from the same piece of ground. 
The advantage of the possibility of such a thing to the new settler is so evi- 
dent that it tells its own story. After harvesting his first crop of wheat, the 
farmer begins to realize the reward of his toil. Each year adds to the num- 
ber of acres cultivated, and to the. productiveness of the farm, and the occu- 
pant is usually able, by the third year, to pay up on his land and take a deed. 
By this time, by dint of hard work, frugality, and some self-denial the first 
year, he has made himself a comfortable home, all his own, and nearly all 
paid for from the products ; a farm that, with the rapid growth of the 
country, will in a few years be valuable, and yet was secured, and a start 
made on it, including cost of house, stock, implements, etc., with a capital of 
less than $1,000. 

That the settler can secure so valuable a home with so small a capital is 
largely owing to the benefits derived from the herd law in the Arkansas Val- 
ley. The amount of land the settler newly arrived shall till is not limited 
to the amount he can fence, but simply to his own a"bility to turn over the 
sod. The crops are protected by the aforesaid law, and the farmer breaks 
every acre he can while the season lasts. Fences are grown with Osage 
orange in four years that will turn stock, the cost being the man's own 
Labor. 

A man with $1,500 capital can add to the foregoing list abetter house, a 
wagon costing $75, more fanning implements, and have a larger balance left 
lor the supporl of liis Eamily, and emergencies. With a larger capital, a man 
fan do proportionately better. More depends on the industry, economy, and 
perseverance of fin- man. and liis willingness to endure hardships, if neces- 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 21 

sary, the first year, than on the amount of capital he brings with him. Suc- 
cess is by-no means assured to every farmer. Some fail through their own 
mismanagement, others from causes over which they have no control ; but 
we think a reference to the statistics in another column will satisfy any 
practical man that the progress and development made in the Arkansas Val- 
ley since opened to settlement is substantial and encouraging; that the 
general success has rarely, if ever, been equalled in a new country purely 
agricultural, and where the chances of failure were so limited, if a man goes 
to work intelligently, farms thoroughly, and is determined to succeed. 

TIMBER, FRUIT-TREES, AND HEDGES. 

In speaking of the lands lying along the whole line of the Atchison, To- 
peka & Santa Fe Railroad, the only candid statement that can be made is 
that native timber is scarce. From Atchison nearly to Newton, timber 
sufficient for fuel, fencing, etc., can be found along the streams ; but the 
completion of the railroad, and its low rates of transportation on lumber, in 
connection with the coal found in abundance along its line, as well as the 
rapid growth of the Osage orange for fencing purposes, almost entirely does 




A MENNOSUTE FARM. 



away with this comparative disadvantage of the insufficient supply of timber 
found in every one of our western prairie States. 

In connection with this question of timber, it is important to note how 
rapidly the. want of timber can be met by proper attention. Nearly every 
variety of tree known to the temperate zone grows readily in Kansas ; and 
the more rapid-growing varieties, like the cotton-wood, maple, peach, and 
ailantus, with fair care can be made to average over an inch in diameter 
for each year's growth. 

The following trees are indigenous : red-cedar, white, red, black, burr, and 
water oak, white and red elm, black- walnut and butternut, cotton-wood, box 
elder, hackberry, honey-locust, willow, shell-bark and pignut hickory, pecan- 
nut, sycamore, white ash, soft and sugar maple, red mulberry, linden, coffee- 
tree, wild-cherry, Osage orange, crab-apple, wild-plum, and others ; of shrubs 
and vines there are elder, sumac, gooseberry, raspberry, blackberry, hazel, 
pawpaw, dog-wood, prairie roses, and grapes of several varieties. 

Fruit-trees grow with wonderful rapidity and soundness. Nursery-men in 
the State can furnish forest, fruit, evergreen trees, and hedge plants, at ex- 



22 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

tremely low rates. There is quite a zeal manifested to plant out forest-trees 
for fuel, wind-breaks, and ornamentation. Peach-trees are grown for shade, 
shelter, fuel, and fruit. They do remarkably well. 

The Osage orange is a particular favorite for a hedge plant. 

Under the laws of the State, a man is made secure in his home without 
the assistance of fences. 

A careful consideration of these facts shows that Nature could not have 
been more wise in her provisions for the welfare of the settler in this section 
of the country. A magnificent soil, in a gently-rolling valley or upland, is 
already fully prepared for the plow of the farmer. If he desires a fence, the 
Osage orange, with little care and trouble, gives it to him ; while the railroad 
transports to his very door coal for fuel and lumber for the building of 
houses. 

LUMBER. 

We here give a few of the prices at which lumber is sold on the line of our 
road : — 



Common boards, per M §25.00 

First and second clear t G7.50 

Select clear $S35.00@45.00 

Stocks 30.00@55.00 

Flooring 32.50@50.00 

Siding , 20.00@27.50 



"A" shingles • $5.00 

No. 1 shingles 4.50 

Ceiling, § 35.00 

Sheathing and culls 20.00 

Fencing $22.00@25.00 



A reduction of ten per cent, is made from these rates in car-loads. 

AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE. 

The average yield per acre, the past five years, in the Arkansas Valley, of 
the various products was, of wheat, 19 bushels ; of corn, 44 bushels ; of bar- 
ley, 20 bushels ; of oats, 32 bushels ; of rye, 21 bushels ; of buckwheat, 18 
bushels ; of Irish potatoes, 100 bushels ; of sweet potatoes, 180 bushels ; of 
sorghum, 110 gallons; of castor beans, 18 bushels; of cotton, 190 lbs. ; of 
flax, 9 bushels ; of tobacco, 800 lbs. ; of broom-corn, 910 lbs. ; of millet and 
Hungarian, 2£ tons; and of timothy, 1£ tons. 

FRUIT-GROWING. 



The vicissitudes of climate which make fruit-growing so precarious in 
nearly all parts of the West do not apply to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
Fe* Railroad lands. The peculiarities of soil and climate stamp this region 
with the characteristics of an excellent country for the raising of fruit; and, 
indeed, a number of fine orchards along the line sufficiently exemplify this, 
While along what is called the " Sand Hills," near the Arkansas Valley, the 
wild-plums, grapes, etc., which there grow in greatest profusion, show what 
is possible wit li cultivation. 

In parts of this country which were settled several years since, many 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



23 



establishments are found where the cultivation of small fruit is made a spe- 
cialty, and the crops of grapes, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are 
generally enormous. 

Colored sectional maps, showing lands sold and unsold, will be mailed to 
any address on receipt of fifty cents. 

CORK 

That the Arkansas Valley is not only the great wheat belt of Kansas, but 
rapidly acquiring the right and title to a similar proud distinction as regards 
corn, would appear from the records ; for certainly the official Reports of the 
State Board of Agriculture contain no more suggestive pages than those 
devoted in part to the facts of corn acreage and yield in the Arkansas Yalley. 
In 1872, the entire acreage of corn in the valley was but 6,272 ; and some 
conception may be formed of the substantial progress from that year to this, 
from the supplementary Report of Secretary Gray, of the State Board of 
Agriculture, showing an acreage of corn in the Arkansas Yalley, for 1877, of 
192,563 acres. In 1872, the total bushels for the valley were 250,880 ; in 
1877, the total bushels were 9,824,950. 

PRICE AXD LOCATION OF THE LANDS. 

Prices vary according to soil, location, water-supply, timber, proximity to 
railroad stations, and other advantages, in precisely the same manner that 
other lands do. 

All these peculiarities of every lot offered for sale may be learned at the 
office of the Land Commissioner, or of any of the local agents along the line ; 
but every man will, of course, examine in person the land he expects to cul- 
tivate, and the locality where his home is to be, and for this every facility is 
offered. 

It is quite impracticable to prepare and send out lists of prices, but the 
following will show the general range of juices in each county : — 



Counties. 



Osage 

Lyon 

Wabaunsee 
Greenwood. 

Morris 

Chase 

Marion 

Butler 

Harvey 

Sedgwick . . . 
McPherson. 

Reno 

Bice 

Barton 

Bush 

Pawnee 

Edwards 

Ford 

Pratt 

Hodgeman . 



Acres. 


Price per acre. 


654.06 


$4.50 to $6.50 


251.11 


4.50 to 


6.50 


11,848.94 


3.50 to 


5.50 


21,640.00 


4.00 to 


5.00 


27,389.13 


2.50 to 


6.50 


124,883.97 


2.50 to 


9.00 


100,363.23 


4.00 to 


9.00 


40,226.13 


5.00 to 


9.00 


54,906.38 


5.00 to 


10.00 


47,435.45 


3.00 to 10.00 


35,066.34 


3.50 to 


7.50 


239,036.96 


1.50 to 


9.00 


129,956.37 


4.00 to 


8.50 


245,677.28 


1.50 to 


9.00 


59,263.67 


2.75 to 


8.50 


161,253.07 


1.50 to 


9.00 


120,645.46 


1.50 to 


9.00 


112,502.07 


4.00 to 


8.00 


18,599.38 


2.00 to 


4.00 


80,489.79 


4.00 to 


8.00 



24 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

THE POTTAWATOMIE RESERVE. 

The Pottawatomie Reserve is located in the eastern part of Kansas, and in 
the centre of the oldest settled part of the State ; is thirty miles square, lying 
westerly and north-westerly from Topeka, the south-east corner lying three 
miles west and four miles south of this city. Those portions of the reserve 
belonging to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company lie in the 
north-western part of Shawnee Comity, in the north-eastern part of Wabaun- 
see, in the south-eastern part of Pottawatomie, and in the south-western cor- 
ner of Jackson County. The Kansas Pacific Railway runs through the 
centre of the reserve, and the Kansas River, affording excellent water power, 
also runs through the reserve. The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad 
Company have about one hundred thousand acres of the reserve yet unsold. 
There are no richer bottom-lands anywhere than those of the Kansas River. 




CORN BOTTOMS. 



They are universally of a deep, rich, alluvial loam, and all tillable ; but some 
are smoother than others, and very rarely a small tract is found that is 
inclined to be a little too wet ; so that their difference of value generally 
depends upon their distance from a town and railroad station, and upon the 
convenience of water for stock, and the amount of timber upon them. 

The prices are, for the best bottom-lands, from two to eight miles from the 
depot, from $10 to $14 per acre ; and for the same with water and timber, or 
either, $11.75 to $15.75. A few pieces near or adjoining town run from 
$16 to $18. 

Settlers on these lands not only have the advantages of the wealth of rich 
soil, healthy air, pure water, and lasting fuel, that Nature has lavished upon 
the reserve, but they have also the advantages of the railroads, the schools, 
the churches, and the society, that have been brought into and about the 
reserve by the enterprise and energies of the people who have been for 
twenty years settling and accumulating around it. They are within easy 
reach of old and well-established churches and society, and almost within 
sight of the largest and most flourishing colleges and seminaries in the 
" rising State of the West." They are at or within an hour's drive of a sta- 
tion on one of the great railroads of the country, and within one to five 
hours' drive of the depot of another as great, and within one to five hours' 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARX A LIVING. 2o 

drive of the centre of railroad competition to all points East and West. 
Thns, while the settler on the reserve is emphatically in a new country, he is 
decidedly within the fully developed civilization of an old country. 

The price per acre, where one-half or three-fourths to seven-eighths is good 
land and tillable, is from $2.50 to $5.25, average about $4 ; where one- 
fourth to one-half is good and tillable, from $2.25 to 84.75, average $3.50 ; 
where not to exceed one-fourth is good and tillable, from 81-50 to $2.75, 
average $2.25 ; to be taken by the 40, 80, or 160 acre tract, according to the 
way in which it has been appraised. 

The terms of payment are : One-fifth cash at time of purchase, with inter- 
est on deferred payments for one year. One year thereafter, only the interest 
to be paid on the deferred payments. The third year and each year there- 
after, until the entire amount is paid, one-fifth of the purchase money, with 
interest on the remaining deferred payments. 

The office of this department is with that of the Land Department of the 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, on the corner of Sixth and 
Kansas Avenues-, Topeka, Kansas. 

All communications to this department should be addressed to W. G. 
Dickinson, Commissioner, Topeka, Kansas. 

DAIRYING. 

Every indication goes to show that there is less danger of dairying being 
overdone than almost any other branch of farming. One thing is certain, 
that the increasing population will increase the demand. Also, that the 
prices for prime grades of butter and cheese are steadily advancing. Thirty 
years ago the price of first-rate dairy butter in New York city was sixteen 
cents a pound, and the price of cheese was from seven to eight cents a pound ; 
whereas the average price for all grades of both Eastern and Western butter 
during the past year was thirty cents a pound ; and for cheese eleven and 
three-quarters cents. Another point must be considered : the products of 
our American dairies are eagerly sought for, and find a ready sale, at high 
figures, in foreign markets. It is estimated that it requires several million 
pounds of butter to supply our home demand, and that the call for better 
grades exceeds the supply. If Xew York dairy-men can make a profit at the 
business, and yet pay freightage to our Western cities, and the usual commis- 
sions, why can we not successfully compete with them ? 

The cheese and butter factories which have already been established in 
Kansas have invariably proved profitable, and others are continually being 
established. We have yet to hear of a butter or cheese factory, which 
has been managed by a skilful superintendent, that has not made money. 
These are the kind of factories that farmers can profitably take an active 
part in conducting. Food being the productive result, such factories are 
in the direct line of their calling. One marked feature in dairying as a 
business is the uniformity of results. It is slow, but sure, business. Many 
are too impatient of results. They do not possess that spirit of careful and 



26 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

intelligent investigation which is essential. Others, again, have no taste for 
the business, and would not succeed at it. One of the strong points in the 
business is the ever increasing fertility of dairy farms. Grain-producing on 




A DAIRY FARM. 

our upland clays, as it is usually carried on, is calculated to impoverish the 
land. It is not so with the business under consideration. The more we in- 
crease the size of our dairies, the more thoroughly we enrich our lands. A 
good dairy will measurably obviate the use of commercial fertilizers ; for in 
stabling and bedding with a liberal supply of straw, each cow will, if well 
fed on the best food for producing milk, necessarily furnish a large amount 
of rich manure. 

If we carefully compare dairying with other branches of farming, we will 
be surprised when we ascertain what a profit each cow pays upon her market 
value. A single statement will serve as an illustration : The eighteen thou- 
sand cows in Trumbull County, Ohio, furnish milk for cheese factories aver- 
aging during the factory season three thousand five hundred pounds of milk 
to each cow. Ten pounds of milk to one pound of cheese gives three hun- 
dred and fifty pounds of cheese, which, at ten cents a pound, is $35 ; thirty- 
three and one-third pounds of butter made before and after the factory 
season, at twenty-five, is $8.33 ; making the gross income for each cow 
$13.33. 

Still another advantage in dairying is that the income is constant as well 
as certain. Probably the greatest disadvantage Western dairy-men labor 
under, as compared with Eastern ones, is the fact that in most portions of the 
West we lack fine springs and clear, running water. But this is not the case 
in our section of the State. We have an abundance of clear, pure water in 
all portions of our county. Wells are easily and cheaply dug or bored, and 
with a wind-pump, pure water can be cheaply and abundantly furnished to 
the stock. Cows must not be compelled to drink out of stagnant ponds or 
pools. In fact, they should not be allowed to drink water that is not pure 
enough for the use of the human family. 

In such a country, with ranges for stock unrestricted and pasturage limit- 
Less, the production of butter and cheese must be profitable. Butter is worth, 
the year round, from twelve to forty cents per pound. Regular manufacto- 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 27 

ries for cneese are being established with success. As yet, in this line, com- 
paratively little has been done. The abundance of pure cold water, the fre- 
quency of springs, the facilities for cool cellars, which everywhere exist, and 
the cheapness with which cattle can be raised and fed, leave this branch of 
labor without any drawbacks, and insure handsome, returns and liberal profits 
to all who may engage in the dairying business. 

The cost of a first-class dairying establishment, for a capacity of one hun- 
dred cows, is $1,000 ; for a capacity of three hundred cows, $2,800. 

No grass will produce more milk, butter, or beef than prairie grass. 

The calves may be raised more profitably here, where feed and grass are 
so cheap and easy of access. 

That the Cottonwood Valley country is to become the favored dairying 
district of the West, we have no doubt. A brief comparison will show at a 
glance its advantages : — 

If in New York, where land is worth from $60 to $200 per acre, cows from 
$70 to $90 each, corn $1 per bushel, hay $30 a ton, with long winters to feed 
through, cheese can be manufactured, shipped to Kansas, and beyond, and 
made a profitable business, then, certainly, the question becomes a pertinent 
one, Why should not this district — with a rich soil, a temperate climate, 
abundance of excellent springs, and clear, running streams of water, where 
land can be bought from $2 to $8 per acre, cows from $25 to $35 each, prairie 
hay can be had for only the cost of cutting it, and native grasses succeed 
admirably — offer the most tempting inducements to engage in the bus- 
iness ? 

WHAT IT COSTS TO LIVE. 

That there may be no exaggeration of the cost of living in the Arkansas 
Valley, but, on the contrary, a fair understanding had of the ruling rates on 
every-day commodities, we give quotations of the prices obtained from the 
leading retail houses in Newton, Harvey County ; Hutchinson, Reno County ; 
Sterling, Rice County ; Great Bend, Barton Comity ; Larned, Pawnee 
County, and Kinsley, Edwards County. Wichita, Sedgwick County, is the 
great wholesale centre of the South-west ; but it is the intention here to give 
retail rather than wholesale prices, as the farmer desires only to know what 
he will have to pay for the goods. No. 1 coffee runs from 3 to 4 lbs. for $1 ; 
sugar, from 5 to 8|- lbs. for $1 ; flour, from $2.50 to $4 per 100 lbs. Canned 
fruits, vegetables, etc. : 2-lb. cans, 20 cts. ; 3-lb. cans, 30 cts. ; 4-lb. cans, 40 
cts. Salt, $3 per bbl. Calicoes range from 8 to 16 yards for $1 ; cotton, 8 
to 12 cts. ; " Indian Head, " and other well-known brands of muslins, 10 to 
12^ cts. Boots, shoes, clothing, hats and caps, and such sort of things, run 
about the same as in the East. One can get a good cook-stove, with accom- 
panying utensils, for $20, and all classes of hardware in equally reasonable 
proportion. Farm-wagons of standard make sell for $70 to $80 ; cultivators, 
$22; sulky-plows, $60 ; reapers and mowers, $160; harvesters, $175; corn- 
planters, $50 ; drills, $60 ; breaking-plows, $22 ; corn-shellers, $15, etc., etc. 



28 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

LIVE STOCK. 

South-western Kansas is preeminently the stock-raising district of the 
West. The prairies, almost boundless in extent, are fairly bedded with the 
most nutritious grasses ; .and the extent of the range on either side of the 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad is practically unlimited. Wool- 
growing in the Arkansas Valley is rapidly assuming vast proportions ; and 
those interested in sheep should at once write to A. S. Johnson, Topeka, 
Kansas, for a neat little publication just issued, and specially devoted to 
wool-growing in south-western Kansas. It is sent free, postage prepaid, to 
all requesting it. Cattle-raising has for years been a leading feature of the 
Arkansas Valley, and of late the increase in hogs has been something simply 
enormous. The mild winters, peculiarly rich grasses, cheap feed, and unri- 
valled range in south-western Kansas, offer inducements to those interested in 
live-stock far surpassing any other section in all the West. 

MARKETS. 

There are no better grain-markets in all the West than at Kansas City 
and Atchison, and both these centres are on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
Ee Road. 

The objection of former days, if ever valid, is so no longer. The fact is 
that farmers in Kansas have a market on the West, as well as on the East. 
The vast mining-regions just beyond make a constant and increasing de- 
mand for cereals and dairy production. The net profit on the investments of 
our farmers is from twenty to thirty per cent, more than the Eastern farmers 
can get from theirs. The railroad facilities to the East are superior, com- 
peting lines affording the very lowest prices. 

OUR POLICY TOWARDS PURCHASERS. 

The grant of lands to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Com- 
pany was given to assist the construction of the road through an entirely 
new and unimproved country, where it had to be built, and operated for 
many years at a loss, before sufficient immigration could be attracted to 
make a profitable business. The company is aware that the surest founda- 
tion for its own prosperity is a productive region, thickly settled by a pros- 
perous and successful fanning community : that its interests are identical 
with the interests of the people by whom it is to be sustained. It is, therefore, 
ready and desirous to give every advantage in its power to the purchasers of 
its lands which will insure them success. Experience has shown that it is 
very difficult for a farmer to succeed, if his first efforts towards the improve- 
ment and cultivation of his farm are crippled by the want of means, and, as 
per terms offered, it waits for the pay for its land until the purchaser has 
brought it into a good paying condition, and has secured a comfortable 
home for his family and himself. 

It has been demonstrated in hundreds of cases, on the lands comprising 
their grant, that a man with a little means to make a start with can improve 



HOW AXD WHERE TO EAEX A LIVIXG. 



29 



liis farm and bring it to the highest state of cultivation : can build him. a 
good house, and surround himself with the comforts of life, and pay for all 




TWO YEAES' DEA-EL0P3IEXT. 

these, and the cost of his land besides, out of its products, by the time 
the whole of the principal is payable. And in order to give the man of 
small means, who could not hope to do this elsewhere, the opportunity to 
accomplish it here, this company inaugurated the system of low prices, 
low ixterest, axd loxg- credit for its lands. The lands can be bought 
from one and a half to eight dollars an acre. In order that the purchaser 
may use his money on the land, a credit of eleven years is given at a rate of 
interest lower than is demanded in any of the Western States. 

By availing themselves of these generous advantages, which this company 
was the first to offer, hundreds who might have earned only a bare living 
from day to day, or who would have passed their lives as tenants on the 
farms of others, have secured for themselves farms and homes of their own. 
and are to-day prosperous and thriving men. 

SCHEDULE OF TERMS. 
Terms : Xo. 1 is on eleven years' credit with seven per cent, interest. The 
first payment at date of purchase is one-tenth of the principal and seven per 
cent, interest on the remainder. At the end of the first and second year 
only the interest at seven per cent, is paid; and the third year and each year 
thereafter one-tenth of the principal, with seven per cent, interest on the 
balance, is paid annually until the whole is paid. 



EXAMPLE. 

On one hundred and sixty acres at 85 an 
payments would be as follows : — 



acre, bought Jan. 1, 1876. the 



Date of Payments. 


Principal. 
S80.00 


Interest. 
650.40 


Total. 


Jan. 1, 1876, (date of purchased 


8130.40 


1877 




50.40 


50.40 


1878 




50.40 


50.40 


" 1879 


80.00 


44. SO 


124.80 


1880 


80.00 


39.20 


119.20 


1881 


80.00 


33.60 


113.60 


1882 


80.00 


28.00 


108.00 


1883 


80.00 


22.40 


102.40 


1884 


80.00 


16.80 


96.80 


1885 


80.00 


11.20 


91.20 


1886 


80.00 


5.60 


85.60 


1887 


80.00 




80.00 








Total of payments at end of 11 rears 


8860.00 


§352.80 


81,152.80 



30 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



Terms: Xo. 2. Eleven, years with seven per cent, interest. No part of the 
principal due for four years. During the first four years only the interest is 
required, and in the last eight years one-eighth of the principal, with seven 
per cent, interest on the balance, is paid annually. 



EXAMPLE. 



On one hundred and sixty acres at $5 an acre, bought Jan. 1, 1876, the 
payments would be as follows : — 



Date of Payments. 


Principal. 


Interest?. 


Total. 






$56.00 
56.00 
56.00 
56.00 
49.00 
42.00 
35.00 
28.00 
21.00 
14.00 
7.00 


$56.00 
56 00 


« 1877 




« 1878 




56 00 


" 1879 




56 00 


" 1880 


$100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
. 100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
100.00 


149 00 


" 1881 


14-7 oo 


" 1882 


135.00 


" 1883 


128.00 


" 1884 


121.00 


" 1885 


114.00 


1886 


107.00 


1887 


100.00 


Total of payments at end of 11 years 


$800.00 


$420.00 


$1,220.00 



The terms of Sale Xo. 2, where only the interest is paid for the first four 
years, are applicable only to lands lying west of the west line of Reno 
County, on the south side of the Arkansas River, and west of range 18 west.. 
on the north side of the Arkansas River. East of these lines the land can 
be sold only on our Terms Xo. 1, Xo. 3, and Xo. 4. 

TWO YEARS' CREDIT. 

Terms: Xo. 3. Three payments. In consideration of the purchaser's pay- 
ing one-third of the principal at time of purchase, with ten per cent, interest 
on the remainder, and the balance in two annual payments, we make a dis- 
count from the appraised price of twenty per cent., and the payments will 
come as follows : — 

EXAMPLE. 

One hundred and sixty acres at $5 an acre, bought Jan. 1, 1876, would 
amount to $S00. Twenty per cent, off would reduce it to $640, and the pay- 
ments would be as follows : — 



Date of Payments. j Principal. 


Interest. 


Total. 




$213.34 
213.33 

213.33 


$42.66 
21.33 


$256.00 


1S77 


234.66 


1878 


213.33 




$640.00 


$63.99 


$703.99 







CASH PURCHASE. 

TERMS : No. f. This is a sale where the whole amount of purchase-money 
is paid down and deed given. For cash we make a discount of twenty per 
cent, from the appraised price. 



HOW AND WHKRE TO KAViX A LIA'ING. 31 



EXAMPLE. 



Jan. 1, 1876, 160 acres at $5 per acre $800.00 

Cash discount of twenty per cent, off 160.00 

Total amount of payment $640.00 

PAYIXG UP IX FULL OX LONG CREDIT PURCHASE. 

.ALL persons who "buy on long credit are allowed to pay up at any time 
they desire to do so, and obtain a deed to their land ; and they will receive a 
liberal discount for payments made some time in advance of maturity. 

HOW TO SELECT LANDS. 

The only satisfactory course for purchasers is to see the country and make 
their own selections. All the company's land has been carefully examined ; 
and in the general office of the Land Department at Topeka, Kansas, can be. 
found plats and descriptions of every lot, which are freely open to the 
inspection of all inquirers ; and experienced men, who are personally familiar 
with the lands, will give any information desired. 

The company have a local agent at each of the stations along the road. 



These agents are reliable men, are furnished with plats and prices of all the 
lands in their vicinity, and they will cheerfully afford you every facility for 
examining and selecting the lands for sale. 

You can, at their offices, make application for the land you select, paying 
the first payment on the same, and receive credit for your Land Exploring 
Ticket, should you have one. All subsequent payments are made to the 
General Land Office at Topeka ; and the system of payments which has been 
established will render the duties of every one who purchases land perfectly 
easy and eminently satisfactory to him. 

The lands of the company are so vast in extent and so varied in charac- 
ter, that the wishes of almost every one can be met, if the intended purchaser 
will make them known. 



32 



HOW AXD WHERE TO EARX A LIVING. 



Iii another part of this circular we give a list of our local agents at the 
several stations, and also a list of our agents in other places. 

SUGGESTIONS TO LAND BUYERS. 

Before coming to purchase lands, see to it that you have the necessary 
means, and make careful consideration as to their expenditure. 

COUXT THE COST. 

Xone should come without proper forethought and needful capital, but 
with these the way is open and the prospect bright. 

It is difficult to make progress anywhere without capital, and nowhere is 
the need of money more keenly felt than in a new settlement. 

You will require money for the expenses of transportation for yourself 
and family, and such household goods and stock as you may determine to 




iii 




'^^ r 'PuBLrc,S 



bring; for the first small payment on the land purchased; for buildings and 
other improvements ; for farming-tools, and provisions, until you can raise 
and grow and sell a crop. 

THINGS TO LEAVE. 

It is not advisable to transport heavy or bulky material any great distance. 
Agricultural implements adapted to the soil of the region, and household 
goods in all their variety, can be purchased here as cheaply as in the Eastern 
or Middle States, after adding the cost of transportation. Cattle and horses 
should not )><■ brought, unless of sonic superior class, as ordinary breeds can 
1m- purchased for much 1 !SS than they could be landed here. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 33 

HALF-FARE TO FAMILIES OF PURCHASERS. 

Purchasers of our land, moving to their lands "with their families, can obtain 
tickets for themselves and the members of their families at our offices in 
Atchison or Kansas City for one-half the regular rate, upon presenting their 
contract for land bought of the company, or a receipt for the first payment. 

Tickets will be sold under this arrangement to all points between Cotton- 
wood and Kinsley on the main line of the road. Parties moving into 
counties on the "Wichita Branch can buy these tickets to Xewton. and pay 
local fare from Xewton to destination. 

Land-seekers will notice how much better this arrangement is than that 
of paying the whole amount for the tickets, and then having to go through 
the tedious and annoying process of getting a portion of the money back 
again. 

EXPLORING TICKETS. 

Land Explorers' Tickets can be purchased at the company's offices 'in 
Atchison and Kansas City, and of our principal State and County agents, a 
list of which will be found in another part of this book. 




LOOKING DOWN "HE WALNUT \/ALLEY FBOt* CUARRT HILL 



A certificate will be given to each purchaser of a Land Explorers' Ticket, 
containing the following agreement : — 

In consideration {hat the party to whom this Certificate is issued shall, 
within sixty days from the date of this Certificate, purchase one hundred 
and sixty acres of the lands of the railroad company, on the terms proposed 
in either of its terms of sale, numbered 1. 3, or 4. and surrender this Certifi- 
cate, the said railroad company will allow such person on the first payment 
on such contract the sum of (being the sum stated in the Certificate), or 
one-half of said amount in case eighty acres are purchased : or one-fourth of 
said amount in case forty acres are purchased ; and if the purchaser prefers 
to make his purchase under the temis numbered 2, one-half of the above 
amount will be allowed. But one rebate will be allowed on any one pur- 
chase of land. 

These exploring tickets permit the purchaser to stop off at the different 
stations going and returning, to examine lands and see the country. 
TITLE TO LANDS. 

The land comes to us by patents from the Lnited States and the State of 
Kansas, and when full payment is made we give Warranty Deed to the pur- 
chaser. 



34 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

WHAT HAS BEEN DONE. 

OTHERS CAN DO THE SAME. 

Mr. Lyman Cone, of Burrton, in Harvey County, purchased of the rail- 
road company the south-west quarter of section 21, T.23, R.3 west, corner- 
ing with the town of Burrton, in 1874, at $10 an acre, on eleven years' time. 
He had forty acres broken, and m the fall of 1874 sowed it to winter wheat. 
Below we let him tell his own story of the result : — 

Breaking 40 acres : @ $3.00 per acre, $120.00 

Stirring 40 acres @ 1.50 " " 60.00 

Harrowing 40 acres @ .60 " " 24.00 

Seed, 60 bushels.. @ 1.00 " bu., 00.00 

Sowing 5.00 

Harvesting and stacking @ 2.00 " acre, 80.00 

Threshing 54.00 

Value of land, 40 acres @ 10.00 " " 400.00 

$803.00 
1,080 bushels wheat sold @ 1.15 " bu., 1242.00 

$439.00 
Leaving a net profit, after paying for the land at the high price of $10 an 
acre (it being valuable land immediately joining the town site), of nearly 
$10 an acre. This result was obtained by a man who was engaged in busi- 
ness in the town, is not a farmer by profession, and hired all the work done. 

STATEMENT OF JERIEL WILDAY, 

of Augusta, Butler County. Drilled in the Gold Drop, a variety of winter 
wheat resembling May wheat, on bottom-land, in the forks of Walnut and 
Whitewater Creeks. Harvested over sixty-three bushels to the acre. The 
ground had been in cultivation five years, and had been planted in wheat for 
several previous seasons. Ploughed six to seven inches deep, and used one 
and one-half bushels of seed per acre. 

Henry Stull, near Augusta, had, on a field of twenty-six acres, forty-five 
bushels per acre. 

Wm. Mellison, of Marion Centre, Marion County, raised over sixty 
bushels of wheat per acre. It stood over five feet high. 

STATEMENT OF C. KIRLIN, 

of Newton, Harvey County. In the latter part of September, 1874, I sowed 
broadcast and harrowed in the variety of wheat known as " Red Genesee." 
I also sowed in corn stubble, and ploughed in with a cultivator some of the 
same variety, in all about fifty acres. I harvested in the latter part of June, 
and obtained thirty bushels per acre. This wheat weighed sixty-four pounds 
to the bushel. The soil is a black, sandy loam, second bottom prairie, and 
has been in cultivation two years, the first crop being sod corn. 
The cost of producing was as follows : — 

*<•<-<[, per acre '. $1.25 

Planting, per acre 1.50 

Harvesting and Btacking, per acre 2.00 

Threshing, per ac?e 3.00 

Total cost, per acre $7.75 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 35 



STATEMENT OF COL. R. C. BATES, 

of Marion Centre, Marion County. I raised five varieties of wheat the past 
season. The best yield was the Lancaster, forty-five bushels per acre. I 
had twelve acres of Gipsey wheat, which averaged thirty-seven bushels per 
acre. This latter variety is a bearded white chaff. I drilled it on black- 
loam bottom-land, which had been in cultivation five to six years. I plant 
corn and small grain alternately. I drilled this wheat in on the 15th day of 
September, and harvested the crop on the 20th day of June. The total cost 
per acre was as follows : — 

Ploughing $ 1.50 

Seed 1.50 

Drilling 50 

Harvesting 2.25 

Threshing 3.70 

Total cost per acre $9.45 

I regard this as a superior variety of wheat for this soil and climate, and 
I prefer drilling in grain to broadcast sowing. I gave it a fair trial last 




year. My neighbor sowed the same seed on the same soil and harvested 
twenty-five bushels per acre, while I harvested thirty-seven bushels. 

STATEMENT OF ED. R. BONNELL, 

of Larned, Pawnee County (county new). Thus far we have only had sod 
crops. Acreage of fall wheat small ; seven hundred and forty-eight acres, 
which yielded from fifteen to twenty bushels per acre. Barley, drilled on 
sod broken last fall (1874), averaged twenty bushels per acre, of good qual- 
ity. Spring wheat, drilled on sod, averaged twelve bushels per acre, quality 
good. I broke sod during the month of March and first days of April, 
which I harrowed twice over, and drilled to oats on the 12th day of April, 
which yielded twenty-two bushels per acre, extra quality. The kind of oats 
was of the barley variety. Sod corn yielded an average of twenty bushels 
per acre, quality good. The acreage of fall wheat sown this fall is at least 
four hundred per cent, above that of last year, which looks exceedingly 
well. Soil, a black, sandy loam, matted with buffalo grass. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH ROSS, 

of Newton, Harvey Comity, formerly of Pittsburgh, Pa. Purchased of the 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company section 27, T.23, R.l west ; 



db HOW AND AVHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

640 acres, at $7.75 per acre, on eleven years' time. In 1874 had fifty acres 

broken and sown to wheat, with the following result : — 

Breaking @ $3.00 per acre, $150.00 

Stirring @ 1.50 " « 75.00 

Harrowing @ .25 " " 12.50 

Seed, 75 bushels @ 1.25 " "bushel, 93.75 

Drilling ....@ .25 " acre, 12.50 

Harvesting and stacking @ 2.00 " " 100.00 

Threshing 1,250 bushels @ .05 " bushel, 62.50 

$506.25 
Cost of land, 50 acres @ 7.75 " acre, 387.50 

$893.75 
1,250 bushels wheat @ 1.15 per bu., 1,437.50 

Net profit $ 543.75 

The following is a copy of a letter received by Col. Johnson, Land Com- 
missioner of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, from a settler, and 
published in the Boston Journal. It was not intended for publication, but 
we publish it as a matter of general interest. 

New^ton, Kansas, May 13, 1878. 
Col. Johnson: 

Dear Sir, — Inclosed you will find my contracts. Also money to make 
the payment due the 25th inst. ; and I w r ould further say that I am still 
occupying my land, myself and family, and don't wish to sell out. Also that 
we are still improving our place as fast as our means will permit, but not 
running in debt. We have about seventy acres of very fair wheat, and 
about the same of oats, and oiie hundred and twelve acres of very nice 
young corn, and expect to sow fifteen acres of millet this week. 

We have our hedge all cultivated nicely, and it is in a good growing- 
condition. Will finish cultivating once over this spring; my fruit and 
forest-trees this week. My trees have done well, both fruit and forest. We 
have about twenty-five hundred peach-trees, and there are not less than five 
hundred bearing fruit. I have one hundred and fifty apple-trees ; some of 
them bloomed this spring, but none bearing. 

I have near twenty thousand forest-trees growing, consisting of cotton- 
wood, boralder, walnut, ash, white willow, and a few Lombardy poplars. I 
have cotton-wood trees, three years' growth, that measure sixteen inches in 
circumference ; and I have one thousand peach-trees in one orchard, three 
years' growth, that will average nine inches in circumference, and many of 
them in full bearing. 

I also have grapes, plums, apricots, and a good lot of small fruits in bear- 
ing, and should have said cherries also in bearing. My oldest peach-trees 
are quite large, and they bore a fine crop of fruit last season, and are very 
full now. I have sold from my farm the past three years about eight car- 
loads of grain and hogs (mostly grain). I also have my farm very well 
stocked with horses, cattle, and hogs, and plenty of good feed for them. 

Col. Johnson, I make these statements to you, not to be blowing, or any- 
thing of the kind ; but I considered the company had a right to know what 
I am doing in the way of improvements, as they have given me deductions 
for improve m ents, and I have made no statements but what are correct, and 
such as I can establish beyond a doubt. Any time the company may see 
fit to send emigrants to my farm, I will take pleasure in showing something 
of the productions of our soils ; and I feel fully capable of convincing any 
reasonable mind that we have a country that's good for something. 

Please make the credits on my contracts, and return by mail. 

Thanking the company for past favors, I remain. 

Yours 'respectfully, * A. II. McLAIN. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



37 



THE QUESTION OF RAIN. 

The Agricultural Department furnishes the following statement of the 
average fall of rain in the several States below named, in the months of May, 
June, July, and August, for a period of ten years, which shows favorably for 
the new West : — 



Inches. 


Inches. 


Kansas 

New Jersey 

Iowa 

Connecticut 


19.19 

17.21 

17.05 

16.70 

16.47 

16.28 


Indiana 

Missouri 

New York 

Nebraska 


15.50 

15.37 

15.25 

14.96 

14.69 




Illinois 

Rhode Inland 


14.68 




16.12 

16.12 

16.10 

15.91 


14.45 


Kentucky 


New Hampshire 


14.27 

14.15 




Michigan 


14.01 


Ohio 


15.75 





RAINFALL IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 
Compiled from Report of State Board of Agriculture of Kansas for 1874. 



Localities 



Spring. 


Summer. 


Inches. 


Inches. 


6.83 


13.28 


8.82 


9.51 


10.40 


9.81 


10.50 


10.54 


11.03 


11.13 


4.09 


6.00 


4.67 


2.17 


5.66 


7.21 


3.22 


6.01 


3.57 


4.99 


2.89 


6.73 



Manhattan, Kansas 

Rochester, New Y'ork 

Boston. Massachusetts — 
Providence, Rhode Island 

Urbana . Ohio 

London. England 

Marseilles, France 

Berlin, Prussia 

Simferopol. Crimea 

Longan, South Russia — 
St. Petersburg:, " .... 



It will be observed from the foregoing statement that the great wheat- 
producing regions of southern Russia have a much smaller rainfall than 
Kansas. 

There are periods of drought everywhere. Kansas is no exception. But 
these periods can always be provided for by the prudent farmer, and never 
ought to cause want, complaint, or even ten words of talk. The rule is, 
abundant and overflowing harvests, and these are so generous that the old 
settler ought to be free from debt, have his granaries full, and have a hand- 
some bank-account. There are hundreds and hundreds of cases where men 
have paid for their land by the first year's crop ; but there is no case on 
record where a fool became a wise man by going to Kansas, or where these 
fertile prairies fed a man who was too lazy to save enough corn, hogs, chick- 
ens, fruit, and wheat, in six years to feed and clothe him through the 
seventh. 

But each man has to go through the world in his own way, and experience 
his own experience. When the poet Goethe was a lad, he asked his teacher 
what experience was. To the same question, oft repeated, the grave tutor 



OO HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

could give the youth only one answer : " Experience is the experience that 
the experienced man experiences in experiencing his experience." It could 
not be told to the inexperienced. 

FARMING BY CONTRACT. 

The following letter from a business man in Kansas will explain itself : — 

As you are aware, I do not reside on my farm, neither do I claim to be a 
farmer in the ordinary sense of the word. I make wheat-raising a specialty 
on my farm. Every operation connected therewith, from the time the 
prairie is first broken until the grain is marketed, is done wholly by con- 
tract, those employed furnishing themselves in every particular. 

The method of operation is as follows : The prairie is broken during the 
months of May and June, but may be prolonged till the middle of July. 
By the 20th of August the sod is once thoroughly harrowed over, it being 
wholly unnecessary to replough the ground. Then seed, at the rate of one 
bushel to the acre, is scattered broadcast, and the seeding is completed by 
two more harrowings, making a total cost, so far, including the seed, of 
$5 per acre. By the 20th of June following, the grain is ready for har- 
vesting, which can be hired done with headers at the rate of $2 per acre, 
including stacking. Threshing costs eight cents per bushel, and the cost of 
marketing depends of course upon the distance hauled. If the grain yields 
twenty bushels to the acre, which is a low average, and the distance from 
town is not more than three miles, the total cost — $4 more being added to 
the cost of seeding — aggregates $9 per acre. The wheat averages rather 
above $1 per bushel, so that the clear profit of $11 per acre remains, and 
everything hired done. 

The straw, to a farmer, is worth $2 per acre for stock-feed. 

A second crop can be grown at an outlay of not more than fifty cents per 
acre, aside from seed, and the mere cost of drilling the grain into the 
ground, without the necessity of reploughing, — taking the precaution to clear 
the land of all litter, by burning off its stubble. The ground is so fertile 
that even three crops of wheat may be grown in succession on one plowing, 
and that the first one. Two years ago, I put in 500 acres, pursuing the 
foregoing method. My yield was 19 bushels to the acre, and it sold 
at 90 cents per bushel, wheat in 1874 having brought a lower juice than 
was ever known here before ; it afterwards, during the following winter, 
advanced to $1.15 per bushel. I have just finished threshing 26,800 bushels, 
as the yield of 1,200 acres, an entire average of 22| bushels to the acre, 
which I have sold at $1.05 J per bushel, making a total net profit of $18,974. 
My straw is worth fully $1,500 more, and the land is increased at least $5 
per acre from being placed under cultivation. By this you will see the re- 
sults of my own experience are decidedly satisfactory, and as to the others 
around, as I wrote you some weeks ago, I have never seen things look more 
hopeful than now. The acreage of winter wheat is nearly double that of 
any previous year, and twenty-five per cent, better, and the same may be said 
of nearly all other crops ; the result of all of which is, that a general spirit 
of satisfaction and contentment prevails, and many a home will have cause 
to bless the grasshopper year, for having instilled a lesson of economy and 
determined industry. 

Respectfully, * 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 39 

COMPLIMENTS FROM NEIGHBORS 

ON THE ARKANSAS VALLEY. 

States are apt to be jealous of each other. They are, in a certain sense, 
rivals of each other. The following testimony, therefore, however flat- 
tering it may be, is that which simple justice requires. The evidence, of 
which only a small part that might be cited is here given, is taken from 
the editorial remarks found in the papers quoted. In June, 1875, a party 
of more than two hundred editors made an excursion over the Atchison, 
Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and here we present some of the comments 
of some of that party : — 

For three hundred and fifty-two miles along the great Valley of the Arkan- 
sas, no better nor more productive soil exists oh this broad continent of ours ; 
grains, vegetables, and fruits of all kinds grow luxuriantly. The question 
has been asked me with regard to fruit, etc. I have only to say that where 
the country has been settled, fruits of all kinds, such as apples, pears, 
peaches, grapes, and small fruits, grow in abundance. — He Witt (la.) 
Observer. 

"While we would not advise our citizens who have good homes to abandon 
them, yet we must acknowledge that the Arkansas Valley presents superior 
advantages to farmers of small means. — Princeton (Mo.) Advance. 

From Emporia on, the railroad passes through a delightful country for 
fifty miles. This is the Cottonwood Valley, so famous for its fertility. 
The corn, nine feet tall, and the bright, yellow wheat, already filled out, 
attest to the justice of this reputation ; and the splendid-looking cattle that 
feed upon the long grass here would further indorse it, if they could tell 
their judgment of the fare that is set before them. — Cleveland (Ohio) 
Herald. 

No more beautiful or fertile country is to be found than the Cottonwood 
and Arkansas Valleys. And remembering that the entire country through 
which we passed was utterly destroyed last year by the grasshoppers, the 
crops in view were an astonishment, and the recuperation of the land a 
marvel. No part of the Shenandoah Valley, in its palmiest days, ever dis- 
played such a production of cereals ; and the sight of wheat and barley 
already in the shock, thousands of acres ready for the harvesters, and the 
advanced stage of corn, oats, etc., drew from the beholders involuntary 
exclamations of admiration and wonder. — Martinsburg (W. Va.) Indepen- 
dent. 

For forty-five miles after leaving Emporia, the road runs up the valley of 
the Cottonwood, a section of remarkable fertility, and now covered with the 
finest of crops. We were shown well-ripened and matured rye seven feet 
high, and wheat over six feet. Samples of timothy and millet upwards of 
four feet high were brought to the cars, and corn nine feet six inches, and 
in tassel, the latter said to be an average of an eighty-acre field, from which 
it was taken. ... In this valley and on to Wichita the crops surpassed any- 
thing I have ever seen. — Huntington (Ind.) Herald. 

The lands along the valley of the Arkansas River are splendid for farm- 
ing, and from the enormous crops raised there it is claimed to be the most 
productive part of Kansas. From thirty to fifty bushels of corn to the acre, 
on newly-broken ground, is the average. Oats from twenty to fifty bushels. 



40 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

Vines of all kinds, potatoes, beets, peas, lettuce, and every kind of plants, 
give enormous returns. Osage orange seed sown for hedges on the sod 
produce plants from three to five feet high. West of Dodge City is one of 
the finest grazing countries in the world. Thousands and thousands of cat- 
tle are supported there. We saw one herd which contained at least five 
thousand head. The climate of Kansas is especially fine, sickness being 
rare. Taken all in all, Kansas is one of the best States in the Union, and 
we advise every young man seeking a home to take the advice of Horace 
Greeley, and go to the Valley of the Arkansas, and grow up with the coun- 
try. — Quincy (III.) Herald. 

We can only say of Kansas that it is undoubtedly one of the most pro- 
ductive States of the Union. In our State of Indiana it requires years of 
hard labor before we can boast of being in possession of a farm. Quite 
different is it in the Cottonwood or Arkansas Valley. There the husband- 
man in the second year harvests a full crop. . . . Your correspondent, in 
conclusion, holds it to be his duty to express his conviction that for the emi- 
grant seeking a home there is no more promising region than Kansas. All 
products find ready sale at good prices. Facilities of communication are 
good, and the climate superior. — Correspondent Indianapolis (Ind.) Herald. 

The atmosphere, particularly in the upper Arkansas Valley, is dry, pure, 
and refreshing, and is peculiarly favorable for those suffering from affections 
of the lungs. The winters are short, snows are not frequent, and remain 
but a short time on the ground. In the* summer, during the hottest days, a 
cool breeze prevails, and the nights are always cool and refreshing. — Elyria 
(Ohio) Volksfreund. 

In the various settlements founded but a few years ago, fruit is grown of 
such astonishing height and voluptuousness as we never see in Ohio. 
The land — a so-called alluvial soil — is in the highest degree productive, 
and needs but the plow to yield rich harvests. The climate is mild and 
exceedingly healthful, the atmosphere pure. The entire immense country 
seems to be intended by Providence for the future garden of Kansas. The 
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, whose line traverses these 
plains, puts all levers into action to lend a helping hand to the new settlers. 

— Cincinnati (Ohio) Volksfreund. 

In a public hall at Wichita, Sedgwick County, June 24, were arranged on 
exhibition, as the products of that immediate vicinity, four varieties of 
wheat (ripe), some stalks five feet high ; three varieties of rye (ripe), six 
feet high ; four kinds of oats (headed) ; corn, seven and a half feet high ;, 
cabbages in full head ; potatoes, grown ; flax, ripe ; barley, ripe ; besides 
five specimens of Hungarian grass, grapes, beets, radishes, wild-plums, etc. 
The show of products at Hutchinson was substantially the same as at 
Wichita. We deem it safe to say, that no section in Ohio, at a correspond- 
ing date, could make a better display than was seen at each of these points. 

— Toledo (Ohio) Commercial. 

Though I am a native of Illinois, the great corn-growing State of the 
Union, and was reared at the plow and with the flock, yet I must confess to 
the superior excellence of these valleys over anything I have ever seen else- 
where. The corn is better, the wheat is better, the rye is better, the oats 
are better, the potatoes are better, the pastures are better, and the vegetables 
and I mils are better than in Illinois, because the seasons are earlier and 
longer, the soil is better, the climate is warmer, and the country is sub- 
irrigated, which makes it proof against drouth, as well as flood. — C. C. 
Strawn, Special Correspondent Pontiac (III-) Sentinel. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 41 

It is no extravagance to say that the rich valleys of the Cottonwood and 
Arkansas constitute the garden of Kansas, if not of the continent, and hence, 
the world. They rival in richness and beauty the far-famed Cedar Valley 
of Iowa, and offer those seeking homes opportunities but seldom met in a 
lifetime. — Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Republican. 

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad leads through one of the most 
attractive portions of Kansas. Were a traveller to form an opinion of the 
entire State by conclusions drawn from a ride over the above road, partic- 
ularly during the growing or harvest season, he would find himself greatly 
in error upon visiting some other portions interior. The entire State does 
not average so well as along the line of the Atchison, Topeka '& Santa Fe 
Railroad. This conclusion does not disparage other portions of the State, 
however, but shows the superiority, as a farming region, of that particular 
region indicated. — Jacksonville (III.) Journal. 

TESTIMONY OF OBSERVERS. 

Joseph Arch, the great English philanthropist and agricultural agent, says, 
in his report to the British Co-operative Agricultural and Emigration So- 
ciety : — 

I regard the soil and climate of the Arkansas Valley as the most temperate 
and attractive, and as offering better inducements to European agriculturalists 
than any other region in the world, not excepting South America. 

Baron Von Brunoff, who visited America in 1873, in the interest of the 
Livonia Colony, wrote : — 

I consider the region traversed by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Rail- 
road as far superior as a wheat-growing country to our own ; in fact, I am 
free to confess that as a wheat and fruit-raising region, it surpasses any por- 
tion of Southern Russia. 

Vice-President Wilson, in 1875, said, in his address to his friends on his 
return home : — 

But to you who are young, full of life, hope, and ambition, I say, Go to 
our newer New England, — the bright, broad fields of sunny Kansas. The 
Valley of the Arkansas River offers you everything that mankind can ask of 
Nature. 

ABOUT SCHOOLS. 

The youth of this commonwealth need not go "a thousand miles from 
home " to obtain a thorough practical or even classical education, for, to the 
credit of our law-makers be it said, in no department is a more generous lib- 
erality manifested than in the cause of popular education. 

Aside from the common schools, Kansas boasts of several institutions of a 
higher order, foremost among which stands the State University, at Law- 
rence, with an eminently competent faculty, and occupying a building second 
in size only to the State University of Michigan. At Topeka we have Wash- 
burn College and the Episcopal Female Seminary • at Manhattan, the Agri- 
cultural College ; at Emporia and Leavenworth each, a Normal School. In- 
stitutions are maintained also for the education of the blind and the deaf- 
mute. Business colleges are in existence in most of the large towns of the 
State. 



42 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



Kansas has 233,000 children of school age, and more than 4,000 good 
school-houses. The interest-bearing school fund of the State amounts to 

$1,237,931, and there is a land 
endowment of $3,000,000. 

The March, 1878, disbursement 
of the semi-annual dividend of 
the State annual school fund 
amounts to over one hundred 
and fifty-one thousand dollars. 
This sum divided among them 
gives to each one the sum of sixty- 
five cents. Atchison County, 
having six thousand nine hun- 
dred and eighty children, receiv- 
ed about $4,537, — not an in- 
significant sum to revert to the 
children of the tax-payers. 




SOMETHING ABOUT STOCK. 

Kansas possesses superior advantages for stock-raising. The dry winters, 
splendid ranges, and low price of lands have induced the profitable invest- 
ment of a large aggregate capital, which is being augmented every year. 
The average grade of cattle is far better than is usual, probably higher than 
in any other State. 

There is no valid reason why Kansas should not rank among the first 
States in the Union for stock-raising. It is the uniform testimony of those 
who have had experience in the Eastern States that our nutritious native 
grasses are unsurpassed for butter and cheese. The cured hay does not 
seem to retain the nutritious qualities of the green grass ; and it is necessary 
to feed more or less grain during the winter. The buffalo grass on the 
plains affords good stock-range all winter. 

The Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Agriculture gives several 
letters from the chief sheep-raisers of the State. We reproduce parts of two 
or three of these letters : — 

Agricultural College Farm, Manhattan, Nov. 13, 1875. 

Dear Sir, — I am very glad to do anything within my power for the 
advancement of sheep husbandry in this State ; for 1 believe that Kansas 
possesses certain natural advantages which, when our people are properly 
educated, will make it one of the "great wool-growing States." I say, "when 
our people are properly educated " ; for wool-growing is a different matter 
from growing com or wheat, or cattle-herding; it demands a good degree 
of natural taste and special knowledge of the work, and the difficulties to 
be encountered in it. The considerable successes, no less than the disas- 
trous failures, that have been made in wool-growing in this part of the State 
will, I think, bear me out in this statement. Without attempting to reply 
to your questions in the order in which they are propounded, I will endeavor 
to answer as fully as seems suited to your purpose, 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 43 

First, among the " peculiar advantages " possessed by Kansas in this 
matter of sheep husbandry must be mentioned its climate. It is well 
known, both in Colorado and Kansas, that the dry atmosphere and soil of 
these regions are not only preventive, but a specific of some of the worst 
complaints to which sheep are subject, notably foot-rot and catarrh. I am 
told that the attacks of the oestrus ova are also unknown. The great extent 
of unoccupied "range," covered with abundant grasses, found in every town- 
ship, the abundance of excellent water, and the exceeding cheapness of hay 
for winter forage, must also be placed among the advantages possessed by 
our State in this matter. 

But sheep husbandry as practised East, namely, as part of a system of 
farm management, is hardly possible in Kansas, except in rare cases. Here, 
sheep must be kept in considerable herds, with the herdsman constantly in 
attendance, and the range must not be limited. The reasons for this are, 
first, the abundance of dogs, wolves, and coyotes; second, expense of fenc- 
ing ; third, and most important, the general absence of " tame grasses " in 
Kansas, and impossibility of pasturing closely the native grasses without 
destroying them. 

Sheep introduced from the East should reach here as soon as possible 
after shearing, in order that they may become accustomed to our grasses 
while they are juicy and palatable. The commonest of all mistakes, and 
the prime cause of nine-tenths of the failures with sheep in Kansas, is neg- 
lect in this matter. The sheep, as purchased of Eastern farmers, are gener- 
ally "broken-mouthed," worn-out specimens. These, arriving in the State 
late in the season, weary and exhausted from the long journey, are turned 
loose upon the prairies to feed upon the dry grass. It is not surprising that, 
under such circumstances, whole flocks frequently perish the first winter 
after their arrival. 

In this latitude sheep should receive the protection of good sheds during 
the winter months, and the grass around the winter sheds should be allowed 
to attain as heavy growth as possible, so as to furnish feed during the fine 
weather of winter. To best accomplish this it will generally be found desir- 
able to have the summer " corral " and winter sheds a considerable distance 
apart. For sound and healthy sheep, hay will generally be found a sufficient 
winter food, but aged sheep and lambs should have a little grain every day, 
and will pay well for such extra care. 

Respectfully yours, 

E. M. Shelton. 

Under date of November 13, 1875, Mr. D. X. Barnes writes from Leaven- 
worth : — 

I raised sheep in New York, and have kept them in Michigan, Illinois, 
Iowa, and Kansas, and find that the climate of Kansas is the best for the 
purpose I have tried. My loss has been less than one per cent, annually 
from natural causes, and almost absolute freedom from disease. 

Sheep need open sheds here, with range, summer and winter. Will fatten 
on any of the tame grasses or hay, but if kept on prairie hay should have 
one pound of corn per head a day. 

C. G. Stone, Esq., of Peabody, Marion County, says : — 

My experience with both fine- and coarse-wool sheep is greatly in favor 
of the West as a locality, especially Kansas. 

My choice of sheep is the American Merinos ; and I think the same of 
them as you write of the Berkshire pig, — the purer the blood the better. 
Fine sheep are like fine pigs, — they require good care ; though I would not 



44 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

recommend every farmer to raise thoroughbred sheep, as we are too far from 
market for mutton, wool being the principal object, but would advise the 
use of thoroughbred rams on grade ewes, as, in that way, flocks and quality 
of wool can be improved with slight expense. Grade Merinos will stand 
herding in large flocks better than any other sheep, as they require less care 
and attention, and will clip more wool. 

One great advantage in this State is that we can raise as much wool on 
land worth from five to ten dollars per acre as can be produced in New York 
on land costing one hundred dollars per acre ; and we can send our wool 
to their market for three cents per pound. 

Another advantage is, no grass is so well adapted to sheep-raising as that 
on the wild prairie uplands, these uplands being a sure cure for the foot-rot 
so prevalent in the Eastern States ; and for protection from cold winds and 
storms a few poles, covered with hay or straw, which many farmers burn to 
get out of the way, answer an admirable purpose. Every farmer in the 
State of Kansas can keep one sheep to every acre of land he owns, and in 
no way interfere with his farming and crops, converting every straw that 
grows on his farm into wool and the best of manure. 

My experience with sheep in Kansas for five years past is quite as favora- 
ble, if not more so, than formerly in the State of New York. 

A MAMMOTH HERD. 

One of the largest and most interesting experiments at stock-farming on a 
mammoth scale in this country, says a writer in the New York Times, is that 
which was instituted, some six years ago, in the then uninhabited region of 
Kansas, by the late Mr. George Grant, of London, England. Mr. Grant's 
estate is known as the Victoria Colony, and is situated in Ellis County, 
Kansas, two hundred and fifty miles west of Kansas City. His first purchase 
gave him an area of two hundred and fifty square miles, to which he after- 
wards added several other purchases, so that he owned, at the time of his 
death, in April, 1878, probably the largest tract of farming and grazing land 
ever owned by any one individual in this country. 

In the matter of stock-farming, Mr. Grant's experiment has been upon a 
very large scale, and eminently successful. Although his crops for the 
first year were nearly destroyed by grasshoppers, that did not materially 
interfere with the feeding of cattle upon the buffalo grass of the plains, 
which is affirmed to be the most nutritious grass that grows, even more so 
than the famous blue grass of Kentucky. Mr. Grant's specialty was sheep. 
He began with a flock of three thousand five hundred and fifty-five breeding 
ewes, and sixty long-woolled English rams of the highest pedigree, and from 
the first flocks in England, consisting of Oxford Downs, Leicesters, Lin- 
colns, Cotswolds, and Southdowns. He had about fourteen thousand head 
of sheep, and two thousand graded cattle. 

Mr. Grant thus wrote, under date of Dec. 20, 1871, to Alfred Gray, Esq., 
the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture: — 

Dear Sir, — Tt Mould be difficult to determine, there being so much con- 
troversy on the subject, which is really the best kind of sheep for Kansas. 
Although I have changed my ideas in some, respects relative to the different 
breeds of sheep raised in America, yet I will always maintain that a cross 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



45 



between the graded Merino ewes and English rams, such as the Oxford 
Downs, Southdowns, Lincolns, etc., produce a sheep which will never fail to 
be in demand in the market, and whose wool will find a readier sale than 
that of the fine-bred Merino. What we want in this country, in short in any- 
country, but more especially in this, is a wool which will meet, not the re- 
quirements of a few, but those of the mass of the population. Such a wool 
is the one I describe. Let the Eastern States, in close proximity to the 
woollen factories, cheap transportation, and superior advantages in feeding 
and handling, continue to raise the fine-woolled sheep. It will pay them, and 
at the same time eupply the wants of the nation ; but on the plains, where 
the country is unsettled, where land is so cheap, grass and water so abun- 
dant, we have advantages for entering into the industry which they never can 
embrace in a thickly-populated country. I do not know a State in the 
Union so well adapted for sheep husbandry as Kansas, or any which is des- 
tined in the future to take such a prominent position in this particular 
industry. If Colorado, with her meagre herbage of bunch grass, Califor- 
nia, with her injurious sand-burrs, hot and rainy seasons, or Texas, with 
her brush and galling insects, prove to be a desirable home for the sheep, 
why should not Kansas, with her rich, rolling prairies of buffalo grass, her 
pure streams and dry, genial climate, prove doubly conducive to the raising 




of an animal so essentially necessary for the clothing of mankind ? The 
industries of Kansas are yet in their infancy, but every year reveals more or 
less of her large resources. Her efforts at agriculture have occasionally been 
thwarted, but her adaptation for stock-raising has not been yet questioned. 



WOOL GROWING. 

South-western Kansas is preeminently adapted for the raising of sheep, 
as throughout the entire country on either side of the Santa Fe Road east of 
the cattle quarantine at Dodge City, the range is practically unlimited. In 
this fact alone lies one of the greatest advantages possessed by the Arkansas 
Valley over Colorado, the claim of the cattle-men of the latter State of pri- 
ority of the occupation of the range causing no little ill-feeling between 
those engaged in the two interests. While certain portions of Colorado and 
New Mexico are already practically closed against sheep-raising, it is thought 
by many who have considered the matter seriously, that it is but a question 
of time when the sheep-range of Colorado will be confined to such exceedingly 
narrow limits as to render the herding of large flocks anything but profitable. 
It will well repay those impressed with the advantages of wool-growing in 



46 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

tins section to write to the land commissioner of the Santa Fe Road at Topeka, 
who in response will at once forward a pamphlet devoted to sheep interests, 
maps showing the grant of the company, the lands sold and unsold, and 
much other valuable information, not only as to railroad lands, but govern- 
ment lands as well. 

The securing of a pleasant home with a well-tilled farm about it in the 
beautiful Valley of the Arkansas, in south-western Kansas, with full and 
profitable control of an unlimited sheep-range, has great attractions for those 
who in the older States keenly appreciate the advantages and pleasures of 
such a life, and, while greatly desiring to enter upon wool-growing exten- 
sively, have only such facilities as enable the gratification of this desire upon 
a small scale. In the Arkansas Valley, a thousand sheep wintered at home 
may, early in the spring, be sent out upon an unlimited range, and, cared for 
by experienced herders, return late in the fall, old and young in perfect con- 
dition, the only expense of the spring, long summer, and pr@tracted fall 
being the pay of the herders, any number of whom can be had at the rate • 
of $10 to $15 per month. But the sheep-men who make wool-growing their 




WELL TO DO. 

sole business, and to whom all other pursuits are secondary, are rarely if ever 
content with less than a range entirely under their control ; and this class 
find in the valley inducements not equalled, or, in fact, approached, on the 
continent. There are millions of acres of government land, the finest for 
sheep-raising in the gift of the nation, to be had in south-western Kansas 
merely for the preemption fees, while the thousands of acres of railroad land 
are to be had at prices hardly averaging $2.50 per acre. Millet and rye are 
two of the surest crops in the section of country referred to, while timothy, 
alfalfa, and tame grasses are grown with the greatest facility. When perma- 
nently located one may readily raise corn, rye, millet, clover, any or all, 
and thus always have feed for stock, while, if it be deemed advisable to go into 
winter wheat, experience has proven that its growth in the spring is greatly 
enhanced by permitting sheep to range upon it during the winter months. 
While many of the sheep-men in the valley carry their flocks through winter 
as well as summer without feeding a pound of grain, it is generally looked 
upon as a good thing to have it on hand in case of an emergency. The loss 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 



47 




TWO YEARS FROM RAW PRAIRIE. 



from disease in this section is exceedingly light, — Mr. Wadsworth, one of 
the heaviest breeders in these parts, not having lost a single sheep from dis- 
ease in all his herd, of three thousand 
and more, for upward of a year. Mr. 
Wadsworth says: "In regard to this 
country as compared with others, for 
sheep-raising, I would say I do not see 
how any one in any of the Eastern 
States can compete with those here in 
the production of wool, it costing so 
much to winter stock where there is 
no winter range, and requiring too 
much high-priced land to feed upon in summer. As to Colorado, I think 
the country there overcrowded now with all kinds of stock ; and even if such 
were not the case, it is liable to very hard storms and deep snows, and with- 
out hay or grain very heavy losses of stock are often suffered. In addition 
to this, the cattle and sheep-men in Colorado are not on the best of terms, 
and are having trouble regarding the right of range. Another disadvantage 
is* the low price Colorado wool rates in the market; and, summing all up, I 
think this country far preferable to any I know of for the wool business. I 
am confident that any one can come here with sheep, managing them as he 
should, and realize fifty per cent, on the investment." To prove that it can 
be done, Mr. Wadsworth declares the following to be a summary of his first 
year's result : one thousand ewes, second cross, $3,000 ; fifteen bucks, $150 ; 
hay, $75 ; corrals and sheds, lumber, $300 ; loss on sheep, $100 ; shearing 
and other expenses, $300 ; one shepherd, $300 ; total, $4,400. Credit by 
eight hundred lambs, $2,000 ; credit by wool, $1,200 ; total credit, $3,200. 
Less expenses, $1,250, the net profit upon the investment of $3,000, and 
aggregate of expenses, $1,250, was $1,950. The item of $300 for corrals 
and sheds should really appear as a portion of the investment, being 
permanent improvement, and reducing expenses of subsequent years. 

The Hon. Cyrus Frye, Postmaster at Lamed, gives his expenses upon an 
original flock of four hundred and seven- 
ty-eight sheep for twenty months, including 
the $1,075 paid for the sheep, at $1,516, and 
the returns $2,885.85, a per cent, of profit 
on the investment in twenty months of 
90|, equal to 54.2 per cent, per annum. No 
account is made of sheep killed for family 
use, averaging two per month during sum- 
mer, and one per month during, winter. 
Only thirty-eight sheep, including those 
killed for family use, were lost during the 
entire twenty months. 
Mr. Samuel Archer, of Kansas City, the most noted fine-wool breeder in 




THREE YEARS FROM TREELESS 
PRAIRIE. 



43 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

the new West, says of the Arkansas Valley and south-western Kansas gen- 
erally, quoting his exact words : "I regard the grasses of central and south- 
western Kansas as better than those of Colorado, New Mexico, or any 
portion on the west side of the plains. The east side of the plains — south- 
western Kansas — is undoubtedly the best in every respect ; the grasses grow 
thicker on the ground, and grow longer. I am persuaded that alkali is 
injurious to the wool ; in fact, experience with the wool of northern Colorado 
and northern Kansas has proven this beyond all dispute. The water facili- 
ties are much better in south-western Kansas than in any other section I 
know of in the West. Another great advantage over northern Kansas and 
Colorado is the milder winters, fewer storms, and lighter winds, thus not 
calling for so much expense in providing shelter and feed. 

CATTLE RAISING. 

Passing Spearville, the next point of prominence on the line of the road 
is Dodge City, the centre of the cattle-shipping interests of south-west Kan- 
sas, northern Texas, and eastern Colorado. Dodge City is on the eastern 
limit and inside the Texas quarantine grounds, or, as everyone hereabout 
terms it, the cattle dead-line. It is for the protection of the native cattle of 
the State that the Legislature defines the boundaries within which stock 
fresh from Texas shall remain for a certain period of time ; though this, as 
a matter of course, has no bearing upon the shipment of cattle to the Eastern 
markets immediately upon arrival at Dodge, it applying entirely to driving 
and grazing. In this almost limitless expanse of Nature's own domains for 
supplying beef for the continent, the portion of the country restricted by the 
quarantine line is as a mere garden-patch, the cattle-man having open to 
him the entire territory from the line of the Santa Fe in Ford County, south 
to the Indian Territory, south-east to the Sumner County line, including the 
incomparable cattle range throughout Barbour, Harper, Kingman, and Staf- 
ford Counties, known as the Medicine Lodge Country. South-west the terri- 
tory is unrestricted, not only to the boundaries of Kansas, but as far out 
upon the great stock plains of Colorado as one cares to go. Throughout this 
vast and unsurpassed section for cattle herding, grazing, and driving, the 
advantages for handling stock are simply beyond computation or detail, and 
the opportunities for gaining large returns from investments innumerable. 
Until recently, and during the many years the great cattle-drive from Texas 
has centred in south-western Kansas, the cattle arriving from that State, or 
" the drive," as it is so generally called in the West, was, as a whole, shipped 
East, the cattle being driven in, in fact, for no other purpose. The cattle- 
man who make the drive and subsequent shipment their business visit Texas 
during the fall and winter months, and, making their purchases of large 
mixed herds, bring them up to graze in the Arkansas Valley and other re- 
gions north and south of the road. • If the Eastern markets are in condition 
to warrant it, the cattle are shipped at once ; if not, they are sent forward 
from time to time during the few succeeding months, improving, of course, 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARX A LIVING. 



49 



all the time they may be held on the range. But of late an entirely new 
feat are of the cattle business has been most successfully inaugurated, that of 
buying small herds, from two or three hundred up to one or two thousand, 
out of the drive, and taking them back into the sheltered and broken country 
found within fifty to one hundred miles on either side of the road, but more 
especially south, and there hold and graze them for one, or two, or as many 
years as one may choose. 

In these terribly dull times in the East, when it is so exceedingly difficult 
for young men to get any sort of start in life, the advantages of operating 
even upon a small scale in this great feeding-ground of the nation are all the 
more strikingly apparent, and already a very considerable number of young 
men of highest standing in Eastern commercial and social circles are actively 
engaged here. 

The total " drive " from Texas last spring and summer — May 15 to July 
15 — was 280,000. Of these 100,000 went north to the Union Pacific coun- 




try, some 60,000 were held in south-western Kansas, and the remainder shipped 
East. In 1873, in the country south of Great Bend and Dodge City — Great 
Bend being then the cattle shipping point — to the State line there were not 
to exceed 10,000 cattle upon the range. In 1871, there were about 25,000; 
in 1875, about 85,000 ; in 1876. 45,000, and last year, 1877, as hitherto stated, 
60,000. In addition to the thousands wintered in south-west Kansas last win- 
ter there were some 30,000 in the northern part of the Pan Handle of Texas 
and tributary to the Santa Fe Koad. 

Of the drive, the early cattle are usually in the best shape, because these 
come from northern Texas, and have a shorter drive. They are also a better 
class of beeves than coast cattle, which are coarser and longer-horned. The 
profit in the business of purchasing either class of cattle with judgment is 
owing to the little expense, from the country being so peculiarly adapted to 
stock, — such nutritious grasses, plenitude of spring-water that never freezes. 




50 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

and no outlay for shelter or feed. The change of climate adds immensely 
to the condition and value of the cattle ; for here they take on fat readily, 
having no troublesome flies or extremes of heat to annoy and debilitate 
them. Texas two-year-olds can be grazed and fattened here for one year, 

and sold at three years old for from 
eighty to one hundred per cent, profit. 
The ruling rates at Dodge City prove 
this beyond all question, as, for instance, 
Texas two-year-olds sold last summer 
for $14, and the same beeves wintered 
and grazed in Kansas until the pres- 
ent year, when they are of course 
three-year-olds, sell for $24. And now 
the question naturally arises as to the 
expense of the year's keeping. There 
is almost any number of parties with 

31 herds of their own u P° n the ran S e > and 

it being practically unlimited, the ex- 
pense of adding to the extent of the herd is simply one of increased 
help, and as herders' wages per month average about $25, the item is not 
of very great proportions. It is a common practice for other owners, 
non-residents, 6r those not caring to devote their time individually to their 
cattle, to place their herds with those of parties attending personally to the 
stock upon the range, and the ruling rates governing such proceedings are 
$2 each for yearlings, and $2.50 each for cattle two or more years old. Each 
owner's stock is branded With his own recorded brand ; hence there can be 
no trouble as to proprietorship, and as the owner of the main herd recognizes 
it as his own best interest to take the best possible care of his stock, and the 
combined herd grazing in common, there can be no discrimination, and all 
in the herd necessarily receive equal attention. Generally three or four 
owners giving their time to the care of the cattle lay claim by right of occu- 
pation to some particular range, with running streams of water permeating 
it, and driving their stock upon it locate their camps or cabins at equidis- 
tant points. Twice a day, every morning and afternoon, the entire limits of 
this range are visited, some one riding in both directions from each habita* 
tion, and, meeting at half-way points, retrace their respective routes to start- 
ing places, this being called in herdsmen's parlance "riding the range." 
Thus the range is patrolled every day in the year, and the cattle not only 
prevented from reaming "beyond the particular range upon which they are 
placed to graze, but all outside intrusion guarded against. The percentage 
of loss by death during the year will not exceed two per cent., and one can 
figure for himself what his profits would be upon an investment in Texas 
two-year-olds at $14 per head, paying $2.50 per head for their keeping, allow- 
ing two per cent, for loss, and selling them at three years old for $24 per 
head. 




A MEXXOXITE SETTLEMENT. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 51 

The same cattle kept in Texas until three years old would increase in 
value but very little, the change of climate making a most marked differ- 
ence in weight and condition. Most of those who have engaged in the busi- 
ness of purchasing cattle and 
holding them for the year, as 
indicated, have found it so 
profitable as to decide upon 
reinvesting their profits in 
more extensive operations ; 
and of this class we will take 
the figures of a gentleman 
who copied them from his 
own books, from accounts 
opened last spring, when he 
commenced in his enlarged 
field of investment. His to- 
tal of expenditure for live 
stock was §23,075. His ex- 
penses at the expiration of the year will be $3,000. At the end of the yeai% 
his herd, which cost him $21,600, ^i\\ be worth $33,750, leaving a net profit 
for the year of $9,150, or forty-two per cent., and this not taking into ac- 
count the cost of mules, horses, bulls, and outfit still on hand. An allow- 
ance should, however, be made for loss during the year, which, at two per 
cent, for the herd entire, would reach thirty head, worth $450, and which, 
deducted from the net profit as given, would make it $8,700. 

A calculation made upon a basis of two years' keeping brings interesting 
results. Take, say, one thousand Texas yearlings bought September 15, at 
Dodge City, for $8,000 ; keep them two years, and sell at corresponding date 
these three-year-olds, double wintered, which is much better than single- 
wintered ; should weigh nine hundred and twenty-five pounds, and at the very 
lowest estimate would bring three cents pjer pound, $27.75, at Kansas City. 
The freight per head from Dodge to Kansas City would be $2 ; commission 
for selling, 50 cents ; yardage, 20 cents ; or a total expense of $2.75, leaving 
the net receipts per head $25. The loss by death per annum, at two per cent., 
would be forty head, which deducted from the one thousand head would leave 
nine hundred and sixty at $25 per head, $24,000. The next thing to consider 
would be the expense, which would be $5,000, which added to the $8,000 
paid for the cattle would make a grand total of investment and expense of 
$13,000, leaving a clear profit of $11,000, or forty-four per cent, per annum 
for the two years' operations, requiring but $13,000 in way of capital, all told. 
Another gentleman, engaged quite extensively in breeding and fattening 
cattle, hands us a careful balance of the books, which shows an aggregate 
value of $53,280, and aggregate expenses of $21,000, leaving the very com- 
fortable profit of $29,280 on five years' operations, based upon an original 
capital of less than $10,000. Should one wish to commence upon a smaller 



52 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

capital, say $4,500 to $5,000, the figures given by a young New Yorker, who 
started last summer, cannot but prove of value, based as they are upon 
the operations of a gentleman of no previous experience whatever with 
capital. He invested $3,300 in cattle, $550 for an outfit, and his running 
expenses, reaching $460, make the aggregate of expenditures the first year 
$1,000, and, his stock being now worth $7,580, the net profit reaches $2,280. 
These figures require no extended comment, carrying, as they do, the im- 
press of fact upon their face, and proving most conclusively the preeminence 
of the cattle business in south-west Kansas as a source of profit, which is 
rarely, if ever, below forty per cent, upon the investment made. The great 
demand that has sprung up in England the past year for American beef, the 
introduction of refrigerator cars, and the limited area of grazing grounds 
east of the Missouri all tend to farther enhance the value of south-western 
Kansas as the great feeding grounds of the continent. 

ATCHISON, TOPEKA & SANTA FE RAILROAD. 

WHAT IS THE SANTA FE' ROUTE? 

Very few people, comparatively, are aware of the length and character of 
the Santa Fe Route. It has been built so quietly and rapidly, has penetrated 
such an entirely new country, that it comes to many as a great surprise to 
learn that a railroad, operating seven hundred and eighty-six miles, includ- 
ing branches, extending from the Missouri River to the Rocky Mountains, 
has been built since 1870. 

It only requires a glance at the map of our country, and the important 
geographical position the Santa Fe Route occupies, from Atchison and Kan- 
sas City, on the Missouri River, to Pueblo, at the base of the Rocky Moun- 
tains in southern Colorado, following the finest stretch of country in the 
West, through the Arkansas Valley, to comprehend that this is really one of 
the most important railroad routes in the West, having at Kansas City 
and Atchison the most complete system of Eastern railroad connections, and 
in its course opening up and reaching forward to that portion of the new West 
which is known to be the most wealthy in agricultural and mineral resources, 
and is attracting the attention of immigration more than any other portion 
of the West. 

By studying the map of our country, one can comprehend rightly the 
important position occupied by the Santa Fe Route. It is the most desira- 
ble temperate belt of latitude. A large portion of the country opened up 
for settlement by its construction is known and admitted to be the finest 
body of country yet discovered in the West, and is filling up with popula- 
tion more rapidly than any other locality, and consequently is offering the 
best field for opportunities to the farmer, the stock-grower, the merchant, 
and the manufacturer. Where population is pouring in rapidly, where 
towns are springing from knolls into cities, almost by magic, with an unsur- 
j >assed agricultural country to sustain them, — there is the field for opportu- 
nities. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 53 

The main line of the Santa F^ Route starts from Atchison, on the Mis- 
souri River ; it runs in a south-western direction to Topeka, the capital of the 
State, where it makes connection with a branch sixty-six miles long from Kan- 
sas City. Leaving Topeka, one of the most beautifully located cities in the 
Western country, it continues south-west through Carbondale, Burlingame, 
and Osage City, the three principal coal-mining towns on the line, to Empo- 
ria, a handsome, growing city of twenty-two hundred inhabitants, possessing 
the State Normal School, and at the crossing of the Missouri, Kansas & 
Texas Railroad, which gives a connection with tide-water at Galveston, Texas. 
From Emporia the course of the road is almost due west, following the beau- 
tiful Cottonwood Valley to Newton, passing through a region which has been 
aptly called " The Garden of Kansas," a large portion of which is similar 
in almost every characteristic to the famous " Blue Grass Region of Ken- 
tucky." 

At Newton, a branch extends south twenty-seven miles to Wichita. From 
Newton the main line of the road runs directly west, following the fertile 
valley of the Arkansas River to Pueblo, at the base of the mountains, and 
six himdred and eighteen miles from Atchison. 

The road is now completed to Pueblo, giving a direct eastern outlet to the 
immense business of southern Colorado, New Mexico, the famous San Juan 
mining region, and Arizona ; and furnishing a valuable Western market for 
the surplus products of the valley, and giving to the traveller from the East 
the most direct all-rail route to all of southern and western Colorado, includ- 
ing nearly all the attractive pleasure resorts, — Colorado Springs, Pike's 
Peak, Manitou, the Garden of the Gods, Denver, Cheyenne, and Grand 
Canyons, etc., etc., the San Juan mines, New Mexico, and Arizota. 

Those who own and control the road are men of Boston, capable of per- 
forming thoroughly all that they attempt. 

The road itself speaks well for the present, and is a striking symbol of 
what will be done in the future. Built in the most thorough manner, with 
fifty-six-pound splice-jointed iron, oak ties, Howe truss bridges, stone cul- 
verts, rock ballast, substantial station-houses, etc., it shows plainly that it has 
been built to stand for all ti?ne, and to perform the duties of a great through line. 

One point, however, of the greatest importance to the settler is this : The 
road has fewer grades and slighter grades than any other railroad in the West 
for the distance operated, and, as a consequence, as soon as there shall be 
enough business to justify the running of more than a limited number of 
trains, its rates can and will be reduced to a very low figure. 

The land-grant through which this company has built its road has been 
justly called " the best thing in the West." 

To the farmer and stock-raiser it offers magnificent opportunities, and 
when in addition to all the natural advantages presented by this company 
are added the artificial advantages which this railroad enterprise has given 
it, it needs only the casual examination of the inquirer to make it command 
attention above all similar enterprises. 



54 . HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

Although the present western terminus of the Atchison, Topeka, and 
Santa Fe Road is now at Pueblo, the demands of the times will not long 
permit it to remain there. We predict that it will not be many years before 
the same enterprise which carried the road steadily and successfully onward 
and outward across the States of Kansas and Colorado will find for it a new 
route across the mountains to the Pacific, and double if not treble its impor- 
tance to the country at large. As it is, passengers at Kansas City and Atch- 
ison find in its prompt and convenient connection with all trunk lines from 
the East and South a strong argument in its favor. 

The Atchison, Tdpeka & Santa Fe Road has already become the favorite 
line to the mountains, a position which it has attained not only through the 
attractiveness of its route (which follows the river all the way from Kewton 
to Pueblo), but owing to the courtesy and liberality of its officers. That it 
will long continue so, there is no reasonable ground for doubt. 

The operating department of the road is in first-class condition. The rail 
is new, the bed laid with great care, and the time made from Kansas City to 
Pueblo is altogether remarkable. The operating and clerical force is under 
splendid discipline, and is made up almost wholly of young men skilled in 
the work. The latest and best style of parlor and sleeping coaches has 
been placed upon the line, and from the base of the mountains, via the 
beautiful Arkansas Yalley, it is a magnificent highway, alike for the pleasure- 
traveller, health-seeker, and land-looker. 



SOME RECENT OPINIONS. 



LETTER FROM HENRY AVARD BEECHER. 

Leavenworth, Kansas, March 28, 1878. 

The early history of Kansas attracted universal interest, t/pon this State 
it was that slavery stumbled and was broken, and under the forces which 
Kansas represented slavery was ground to powder. The colonies which on 
the abolition of the Missouri Compromise were formed in the North came 
to Kansas, both for the bettering of their temporal condition and for the 
defence of liberty. In this respect Kansas had a history parallel with that 
of the early colonies of New England, except in this, that the Puritans and 
Pilgrims left their enemies behind them, while the Kansas pioneers emi- 
grated into the very midst of bitter adversaries. It was a sagacious but 
audacious scheme to plant a Northern State with Northern institutions so 
far south, right alongside of a notable slave State, and thus defy a compari- 
son between the two styles of commonwealths. 

Next, Kansas has shown the true spirit which frames great States, in pro- 
viding for popular education. Her schools are admirable, and have been 
from the beginning. They have grown out of the will of the people them- 
selves. The people are proud of them. They spread with the population. 
Emigrants do not leave churches and schools behind them ; they find them 
everywhere. To-day a country is wild and without inhabitant ; to-morrow 
it has its tens of thousands, and the day following it is an old, settled country ! 
More than a quarter of a million emigrants will settle in Kansas during this 
year. They are not, for the most part, foreigners, to be broken into our lan- 
guage, customs, ideas, and civil usages. They are from the North-west, the 
North-east, the Middle States, — men of some little substance and well 
stocked with ideas. 

The admirable exhibit which Kansas made at the Centennial opened the 
eyes of thousands, and has drawn hither tens of thousands who could 
imagine no better agricultural paradise than the land which produced such 
fruits and grains. The fever of speculation which distempered this goodly 
State is over. Men have come back through suffering to economy, to salu- 
tary toil, and to moderation of desires. Slowly but surely the people are 
recovering from the miserable mania of extravagance and speculation. 
Hope prevails, but it is chastened. No wonder men were elated. I can 
scarcely conceive of anything that would so intoxicate an Eastern man, 
accustomed to forest-covered lands or penurious soils, as a ride through 
JKansas. — In the Christian Union. 



56 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

\_llev. W. H. H. Murray, in tlie Golden Rule.~\ 

Any man fitted either by nature or experience for out-door work, with 
sound health and plenty of grit, can undoubtedly find better chances of suc- 
cess in some portions of the West than he can at the East. But he can win 
there, as here, only by paying the price of success. If he can live in a board- 
shanty or a log-hut — live on plain fare, and work hard, as his neighbors do, 
— in short, adapt himself to the healthful hardships and needful thriftiness 
of a new country, he may be independent, and give to his children the boon 
of a fair start which they might never have here. But he must readjust his 
views of the relative value of things. The so-called necessities of our older 
communities are luxuries in the new, and our luxuries are there largely un- 
known. " Nature's favors are pretty evenly distributed, after all," says the 
Tribune ; or, in the epigrammatic language of the Concord philosopher, " If 
we have one good thing, we pay for it by the loss of some other good thing." 
The law of compensation holds especially true in respect to localities, and 
he who seeks a country not hampered by drawbacks will fail to find it, — 
this side the better world — just as he ought to fail who seeks for success 
in any calling without being willing to pay its fair equivalent. 

GO WEST. 

Since Horace Greeley first gave the advice, it has never been more perti- 
nent than now. It never has pointed more clearly to a solution of social and 
national troubles. We people who once had the honor of being called 
Western, an honor we are rapidly losing, have been in the habit of recom- 
mending the westward movement on personal grounds. We have even boast- 
fully maintained that the snap and nerve of the East are steadily coming 
West, and that only on the freer and broader theatre of the West are the 
vigor and energy of young manhood fully developed. 

This fact still holds, and remains a sufficient reason why young men 
should go West, even when the West means a land far beyond us, and 
when the adyice may deplete our own neighborhood. But there is also a 
more general reason for the counsel. It is based on a philosophic considera- 
tion of the wants and condition of our entire country. One great remedy 
for the ills of the body politic, and specifically for the cure of that great and 
well-nigh chronic disorder called " hard times," is a shaking-up of the over- 
crowded nests of our centres of dense population, and a movement toward 
our magnificent heritage beyond the Missouri. 

Those who imagine that emigrating to them will carry them beyond the 
pale of civilization, to a country as remote and inhospitable as twenty years 
ago Massachusetts pictured Illinois to be, should be told that in many of 
the new towns of that region they will find society that will, either for intel- 
ligence or morality, compare favorably with that by which they are now 
surrounded. The line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad is 
dotted with villages and towns every few miles, where churches, schools, and 
good society will greet the emigrant on his first arrival, while the land, 



HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 57 

adapted to general agricultural purposes in the western part, especially to 
grazing, is rich enough and fair enough to stir the blood of a Cincinnatus. 

With this country before a young married couple, every climate beckon- 
ing and every industry loaded with splendid rewards, how they can settle 
down in two rooms that look out on an alley, and a stone wall within reach 
of a clothes-pole, and contemplate life on a shaky thirty dollars a month, and 
call it happiness, is a mystery the bottom of which our philosophy has 
never been able to strike. 

Now what the country needs is that its great farm be farmed. It needs a 
diminution of consumers and an increase of producers. On that general 
path our wealth must come. Let us awake to the fact. It is a hopeful sign 
that a thousand a day are said to be pouring into Nebraska, and that the 
south-western trains are loaded with people who are going to make homes for 
themselves in those fertile regions. There is no better way for government 
to help the country than to find ways of encouraging the settling of the 
"West. A hundred thousand farmers are wanted for the north-west, a hun- 
dred thousand for Nebraska, a hundred thousand for Kansas and Texas. 
They will find, not a wilderness, but a beautiful land waiting to be trans- 
formed into a garden. Hard work and patience will give them in their new 
homes, not only the comforts of life, but, gradually, all their children will need 
of society and education. 

When thus the West is opened, the tide of blessing will be refluent, and 
fill our channels of trade, and bring life and health to every part of the coun- 
try. We write these words in no interest but that of our country and of the 
hundreds of thousands half starving in crowded cities, fighting the wolf half 
the year round, and never " ahead," who might with far less anxiety and no 
more toil be laying the foundations for a competence for their children, 
while themselves constantly employing the rewards of their healthful in- 
dustry. — The Interior, Chicago. 

THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. 

The cities are the head-quarters of a vast amount of this misdirected talent, 
effort, and energy. There the idle and unemployed literally swarm, seeking 
for work or for assistance to enable them to live. In many cases they find 
little or nothing to do in the line of employment they seek, but still they 
remain, picking up an irregular and precarious subsistence as they best can. 
All kinds of business are beset with applicants for situations, when it is dif- 
ficult to find profitable employment for those already engaged. Salesmen, 
book-keepers, and clerks out of place are literally too numerous to mention, 
while in the higher departments of business, as well as in the wide field of 
manual labor, the excess is equally great. The unemployed manage to live, 
however, in some mysterious way, although how they do it will probably 
never be generally understood. The unpaid bills at boarding-houses and 
hotels, the borrowed money, the contributions of charitable friends or rela- 
tions, the free lunch, the soup-house, and the station-house lodging indicate 
some of the methods resorted to, even when crime is not directlv added to 



58 HOW AND WHJERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

the list. They live, in short, on the community, to whom they make no 
advantageous return. 

Judging by the number of the unemployed, it might well be supposed 
that, from one cause or another, there was absolutely nothing for them to do 
in all this vast country. Such an idea we regard as the merest nonsense. 
It is born of a feeling of dependence upon others, which, more than anything 
else, is destructive of true manhood. Thousands, like Micawber, are waiting 
for something to turn up for their benefit, who never think of turning up 
something for themselves. 

No man with health and strength should consider himself as absolved 
from doing any work at all unless he has the means of supporting himself 
without work. If they wait to gratify their tastes in regard to the business 
of a life, they should at least labor while they wait. But the impression that 
there is nothing to be done in this country whereby labor may be made self- 
supporting is at all times an erroneous one. Mere support does not mean a 
great deal to an individual. It means a certain amount of food, a little 
clothing, and some kind of shelter. The hardy pioneers in this country were 
•able to obtain it in a howling wilderness, and under circumstances much 
more difficult than would be encountered by any who might now seek for it 
on an independent basis. 

Thousands of acres of land in New England, run out or unimproved, and 
millions in the teeming West and South offer support, at least, to all who 
will cultivate it. It offers support, and, what is more, independence and 
competence to those who devote themselves with industry and intelligence 
to the development of its bounties. But agricultural labor has lost its 
attractions. The farmer's sons leave the paternal acres and flock to the 
cities, leaving the sure employment there offered, and for which in most 
cases they are the best fitted, in search of business in fields already over, 
stocked. By their success or failure in their new ventures, their course is 
properly enough to be judged; but it is certain that too many of them play a 
losing game in the battle of life, Cheap clerkships, temporary employment 
as drivers of teams, as horse-car conductors, or as waiters and tenders in res- 
taurants and saloons, with but little pay and less credit, is too often the result 
of their endeavors for position. When these means fail, they too often 
degenerate into idlers and loafers, with a love of excitement fully developed, 
and all disposition for good, honest work thoroughly destroyed. Has the 
change from the farm to the city been of any benefit to them or to the coun- 
try ? In too many cases we fear a negative answer must be returned. But 
personal freedom of action is not to be circumscribed. The world, as well 
as to others, is " before them, where to choose " ; but when so many of the 
unemployed who are living upon the community, and doing nothing to sup- 
port themselves, are complaining of their hard lot, and calling upon the Her- 
cules of capital to raise them from their unfortunate condition, it is worth 
v, hil'-. for all to remember from what source relief may come. — Boston Daily 
Advertiser. 



HOW AND WHERE TO EABN A LIVING. 59 

WESTERN HOMES. 

The minds of the better element among our laboring people are turning 
-to agriculture as a relief from the oppression and want of city life. The 
only possible relief is to go out upon the teeming prairies of the West, 
and by hard, honest toil carve out a livelihood and future. They must ex- 
pect to work early and late, and to toil harder and endure more than they 
have been accustomed to endure, — at least, at the outset. Unless they have 
the nerve to meet privation and toil, it will be foolish to think of going. 
Hence any who have not stout hearts and strong hands should not go. 
Those unwilling to endure some privations should not go. Those who are 
will gradually accummulate the comforts of home, and a plain, but solid and 
honest, competence for their children. The sooner labor starts in such direc- 
tion, the sooner we shall have prosperity. It is one of the elements of pros- 
perity. We therefore urge those who can meet the conditions to go. The 
effeminate and irresolute will not better their condition by going. — Pitts- 
burgh Commercial Gazette, March 28, 1878. 

SELF-HELP. 

Now is the time for Americans to practise the lesson of self-help. The 
prospects of business are no better this spring than they were one year ago. 
Building in all its branches is suspended ; the capitalist holds his store of 
money tightly in his hands ; trades are failing ; values are shrinking, and 
thousands who thought themselves prosperous must begin the work of life 
anew. The present is one of those testing seasons which try the manliness 
of a race. And if we are descended from a good stock, as we claim to be, 
we ought, with God's help, to bear the test well. 

Prof. Lowell, in his "Biglow Papers," describes the Yankee as having 
bfcen taught by stern necessity to adapt himself to novel situations. " He 
will invent new trades as well as tools. Put him on Juan Fernandez, and 
he would make a spelling-book first and a salt-pan afterwards." But it may 
be queried whether this energetic, typical American has not of late been be- 
numbed in his faculties, and whether, with a whole continent before him 
awaiting the shaping touch of his genius, he has not been subdued by fear. 
We occupy a country very thinly inhabited. Population has, in very few of 
the States, reached the average density of one hundred and twenty to the 
square mile. We hardly know yet the geography of our great estate. Year 
after year government explorers return and tell us of broad lands yet to be 
occupied, known to us only by name heretofore. One single State in the 
south-west is capable of sustaining as large a population as England. And 
yet young men are complaining that all positions are filled. Skilled laborers 
are standing in the market, and when reproached with idleness answer, " No 
man hath hired us." In view of the resources of our country, this is a won- 
derful phenomenon. We Americans must acquire a larger way of thinking, 
and must grow more in the grace of self-help. — Illustrated Christian Weekly t 
May 2, 1878. 



KANSAS 



The story of the settlement and growth of Kansas is inspiring. It is one 
of the brightest chapters in our national history. The heroic struggle of 
her people for a free territory early gained for them the admiration of the 
lovers of liberty everywhere. Her growth has no parallel in the history of 
emigration. Admitted into the Union in 1861, only seventeen years ago, 
with a population of one hundred and seven thousand, she now numbers 
more than twice as many people within her borders as can be found in Ver- 
mont or New Hampshire, more than three times as many as Rhode Island 
contains, four times as many as Florida, and five times as many as Dela- 
ware. As an indication of the enterprise of the State, and of the belief of 
capitalists in Kansas as a good place for investment, the notable fact may 
be mentioned that already she is the eighth State in the Union in extent of 
its railroads. The whole of New England has only twice as many miles of 
railroad as this new commonwealth not yet twenty years old. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul of France, sold to the United States, 
in 1803, the province of Louisiana, which included nearly all of Kansas, and 
comprised 1,160,577 square miles, a domain much larger than that of the 
original thirteen colonies, which was only 820,680 square miles. The whole- 
amount paid to France by the United States, in principal and interest, was, 
for this vast territory, less than $24,000,000. 

Early in 1870, while Louisiana was yet a province of Spain, Benjamin 
Franklin wrote to John Jay : " Poor as we are, yet, as I know we shall be- 
come rich, I would rather agree with the Spaniards to buy at a great price 
the whole of their right on the Mississippi than sell a drop of its waters. 
A neighbor might as well ask me to sell my street door." The treaty with 
France for the acquisition of Louisiana was ratified by the Senate on the 
20th of October, 1803, and thus a pathway was opened forever to that great 
central portion of the American continent which is already the chief basis 
of its agricultural and mineral productions, the best exemplification of its 
miraculous progress, and the centre of its political power. 

In 1804, Kansas became a part of the District of Louisiana. In that year 
the expedition of Lewis and Clarke left St. Louis. In 1805, Congress changed 
the District of Louisiana to the Territory of Louisiana, still embracing Mis- 
souri and Kansas. In 1812, the Territory of Orleans became the State of 
Louisiana, and the Territory of Louisiana was changed to the Territory of 
Missouri. 

In 1819, by a treaty with Spain, the western boundary of Louisiana Pur- 
chase was adjusted. That part of the present State of Kansas lying east of 



HOW AND WHERE TO EAliX A LIVING. 61 

the twenty-third meridian (one-hnndredth Greenwich) and north of the 
Arkansas River did net form a part of Louisiana, but was acquired from 
Mexico. It contains seven thousand seven hundred and seventy-six square 
miles. 

In 1820, Congress passed an act enabling the people of Missouri Territory 
to become a State, and prohibiting slavery in all of the Louisiana Purchase 
which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude. 
The next year Missouri entered the Union as a slave State. St. Louis then 
had Jess than five thousand people. 

In 1823, the first wagon-train from Missouri to Santa Fe passed through 
Kansas. This was the beginning of the commerce of the plains. 

In addition to her native Indian tribes, Indians of Eastern States were 
given reservations in Kansas. This policy was followed by the government 
until 1854, when the policy began which has sent them all away. Until the 
year last named, the only white residents of Kansas were those connected 
with Indian missions, or traders with Indians, or white persons, usually 
French, who had married Indians and adopted their mode of life. The 
three classes combined probably did not number more than one hundred and 
fifty persons. 

The "Santa Fe Trail," a wagon-road from Missouri to New Mexico, was 
established by Major Sibley, under an act of Congress, in 1825. Fort Leav- 
enworth was established in 1827. The Baptist Shawnee Mission, near "Wy- 
andotte, was established in 1831. The Methodist Shawnee Mission dates 
from 1832, and the Friends' from 1833. 

The first printing-press was sent to Kansas in 1834, by the Baptist Home 
Mission Society, of New York, in charge of Rev. Joseph Meeker, and was 
located at the Baptist Mission Farm, five miles north-east of Ottawa, in 
Franklin County. 

Kansas was organized as a territory by act of Congress, May 30, 1854. 
The law of 1820, declaring it free, was nullified, and the new law opened it 
to freedom or slavery, as its settlers might vote. This was called popular or 
squatter sovereignty. It was a pretence to establish slavery in Kansas. The 
territory was the creature of the general government ; that government was 
pro-slavery, and kept Kansas so until she became a State, by Republican 
votes, that party having obtained a national victory in November, 1860. 
The territorial governors, judges, and marshals were appointed by slavery, 
&nd they, by legal and illegal means, kept slavery here. 

The North and South entered into a contest to people the territory. The 
North out-emigrated the South. The contest led to a civil war in Kansas. 
In this war two hundred lives were lost, and not less than two millions in 
money. 

A census taken in February, 1855, showed a population of eight thousand 
six hundred and one. In October, 1855, the Free State men met in Topeka 
and formed a Constitution. Officers were elected under it, legislatures met, 
laws were passed but not enforced, and the movement served only to unite 
and give power and efficiency to the Free State party. 



62 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

At a later day the national House voted to admit Kansas under this Con- 
stitution; but the Senate did not become a free body until made so by seces- 
sion, in 1861, and constantly spurned the appeals of Free Kansas. 

The final national victory, the election of Abraham Lincoln, seemed to 
the South so decisive a triumph for freedom that she could save slavery only 
by a separate confederacy. This determination continued the war in Kan- 
sas, and gave birth to her second army of heroes, — the volunteer soldiers of 
the civil war. These came without bounties, without a draft, and in larger 
proportionate numbers than any other State gave with bounties and with 
forced conscriptions. $ 

From 1851 to 1865, the war was in Kansas. Houses were burned, fields 
laid waste, printing-presses mobbed, whole towns destroyed, and hundreds 
of citizens massacred. No other State in the Union has had so turbulent, so 
painful, so heroic a history. 

During the year 1854, the towns of Leavenworth, Lawrence, Topeka, and 
Atchison were founded. Emigration to the territory was quite brisk the next 
year, and the country improved rapidly, but the feuds between the Free 
State and Pro-slavery parties having risen to blood-heat during the fall of 
that year, and sacking, killing, and murdering being the order of the day, 
emigration was impeded, and for the next eighteen months but few perma- 
nent accessions were made to the population of the territory. In the spring 
of 1857, the tide of emigration was greater than it had been in the previous 
history of the territory. In the fall of that year it was estimated that we 
had a population of sixty thousand- 

Charles Sumner, speaking of the Kansas of this period, said in the United 
States Senate : — 

Take down your map, sir, and you will find that the Territory of Kansas, 
more than any other region, occupies the middle spot of jSTorth America, 
equally distant from the Atlantic on the east and the Pacific on the west ; 
from the frozen waters of Hudson's Bay on the north and from the tepid 
Gulf Stream on the south, — constituting the precise territorial centre of the 
whole vast continent. To such advantage of situation, on the very highway 
between two oceans, are added a soil of unsurpassed richness, and a fasci- 
nating, undulating beauty of surface, with a health-giving climate calculated 
to nurture a powerful and. generous people ; worthy to be a central pivot of 
American institutions. A few short months only have passed since this 
spacious mediterranean country was open only to the savage, who ran wild 
in its woods and prairies ; and now it has already drawn to its bosom a pop- 
ulation of freemen larger than Athens crowded within her Historic gates, 
when her sons, under Miltiades, won liberty for mankind on the field of 
Marathon ; more than Sparta contained when she ruled Greece, and sent 
forth her devoted children, quickened by a mother's benediction, to return 
with their shields or on them; more than Rome gathered on her seven hills, 
when, under her kings, she commenced that sovereign sway which afterward 
embraced the whole earth ; more than London held, when on the fields of 
Cressy and Agincourt, the English banner was carried victoriously over the 
chivalrous hosts of France. 

From 1800 till 1865 — the civil-war period, — there was but small emigra- 
tion to Kansas. Our exposed position to the main enemy and the Indians 



HOW AND WHKRE TO KARN A LIVING. 65 

caused thousands to leave the State, while thousands of lives, constituting 
the best blood of this grand and heroic commonwealth, were sacrificed on the 
altar of our country. 

On the 29th of January, 1861, after a long and bitter conflict in Congress, 
Kansas was admitted into the Federal Union. She had already formed a 
Constitution and elected a State government. Her first Governor was sworn 
into office Feb. 9, 1SG1, on the same day that Jefferson Davis was elected 
provisional President of the Southern Confederacy, and two days before 
Abraham Lincoln left Springfield for Washington to assume the duties of 
the presidential office. 

The report of the Adjutant-General, in 1865, credited Kansas with having 
contributed to the Union armies 21,806 men. In 1861, the vote of the State 
was only 1-4,461. In 1864, the vote of the State was 21,835. History will 
be searched in vain for a parallel to this patriotism and this growth, — this 
combination of heroic faith in the Union and in Kansas. "What other Staie 
mustered more soldiers than it had voters ? The three States which show 
the highest mortality in the war are Kansas, Vermont, and Massachusetts. 
The proportion per thousand was as follows : Kansas, 61.01 ; Vermont, 58.22 ; 
Massachusetts, 47.76. 

But through all these disasters Kansas grew larger. The little strip of 
cultivated fields along the Missouri border kept growing wider and wider, 
until it broadened to the centre, and beyond the centre, of the State. There 
was a fascination in the fruitful fields and cheerful climate which held the 
family to the farm while the plowman had " gone for a soldier." The sol- 
diers of other States who came here during the war returned to become cit~ 
izens when the war was over. 

And it was not the ISTorth only that came to free Kansas. There were 
carpet-baggers and ku-klux in the South ; there were free schools, free lands, 
a brave and generous people in Kansas. The men of the South came here, 
rejoicing with our pioneers in the establishment of free institutions on these 
broad prairies. Five years after the close of the war, one person out of 
every five in Kansas was a native of the South. In 1870, the total popula- 
tion was 364.399 ; of this number, 73,925 were born in the Southern States, 
These citizens are among our most earnest and efficient promoters of every 
good cause. Their numbers have constantly increased since that date. 

Kansas did not become a State until January, 1861, and the era of peace 
did not begin until the close of the war in 1865, thirteen years ago. Con- 
sidering her youth, her growth has been marvellous and unparalleled. Her 
census figures may be tabulated thus : — 

In 1855, February 8,601 

In I860, June , 107,206 

In 1865, June . 135,807 

In 1870, June 364,399 

In 1875, March 531,156 

In 1877, March 592,916 

The gain in the decade from 1860 to 1870 was 239.90 per cent., — a greater 



64 HOW AND WHERE TO EARN A LIVING. 

increase than any other State made. Minnesota gained in that decade 
155.G1 per cent. ; Iowa, 76.91 per cent. ; Oregon, 73.30 per cent. ; Illinois, 
48.36 per cent. ; and Missouri 45.62 per cent. Maine and South Carolina 
increased less than one per cent, each in that decade. The average for all 
the States and territories was 25.52 per cent. 

In 1860, Kansas ranked thirty-third, in 1870, twenty-ninth, among the 
States in population. In the decade from 1860 to 1870, it more than trebled 
its population, and during the five years from 1870 to 1875 nearly doubled it. 
In 1860, only 372,825 of the 52,000,000 acres of land included within the 
limits of Kansas were under cultivation, and in 1874 the area cultivated 
amounted to 3,659,777 acres. In 1865, there was not a mile of railroad in the 
State, and now Kansas has two thousand three hundred and ten miles of 
completed railway lines traversing her territory. 

In a letter to the New York Tribune from Kansas, dated Oct. 9, 1870, 
Horace Greeley wrote : — 

Settlers are pouring into Eastern Kansas by car-loads, wagon-loads, 
horse-loads, daily, because of the fertility of her soil, the geniality of her cli- 
mate, her admirable diversity of prairie and timber, the abundance of her 
living streams, and the marvellous facility wherewith homesteads may here 
be erected. . . . Kansas is going ahead magnificently, and I predict that the 
child is born who will see her fifth, if not fourth, in population and produc- 
tion among the States of our Union. 

The rapid growth of the State since the last estimate would seem to show 
that his prediction will be fulfilled during the lifetime of many who have 
already attained their maturity. 



^ROEN OF T 8e 



*•*. 




The rudiments of empire here 
Are plastic yet and warm ; 

The chaos of a mighty world 
Is rounding into form '. 



Each rude and jostling fragment soon 
The fitting place shall find,— 

The raw material of a State, 
Its muscle and its mind! 

Wkittier. 



CEO. H. ELLIS, PRINTER, BOSTON 



Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R.R. Co. 



DIRECTORS 



CHOSEN AT THE 



ANNUAL MEETING, MAY 16, 1878. 



Thomas Nickerson, Boston, Mass. B. P. Cheney, Boston, Mass. 

Joseph Nickerson, " " Charles W. Pierce, Boston, Mass. 

Isaac T. Burr, " " C. K. Holiday, Topeka, Kan. 

Alden Speare, " " B. F. Stringfellow, Atchison, Kan. 

George B. Wilbur, " " S. A. Kent, Chicago, 111. 

Charles J. Paine, " " Thomas Sherlock, Cincinnati, O. 

F. H. Peabody, " " L. Severy, Reading, Kan. - 



BOSTON OFFICE, 24 EQUITABLE BUILDING. 



OFFICERS. 

Thomas Nickerson, President, Boston, Mass. 

W. B. Strong, Vice-President and General Manager, Topeka, Kansas. 

Edward Wilder, Secretary and Treasurer, Topeka, Kan. 

Geo. L. Goodwin, Assistant Treasurer, Boston, Mass. 

Isaac T. Burr, Chairman of Finance Comtnittee, Boston, Mass. 



NEW ENGLAND LAND OFFICE, 

197 Washington Street, Boston. 
J. R. WATSON, Agent. 



GENERAL AGENTS. 



For information as to routes, reduced rates on tickets and freight, and 
excursion dates, apply to nearest Agent in list given below : 

C. A. SEYMOUR. General Agent 239 Broadway, New York. 

JXO- L. TRUSLOW, General Agent 44 Louisiana St.. Indianapolis. 

SAMUEL B. HYNES, General Agent 402 Pine St., St. Louis. 

Iff. SOLOMON, General Land Agent 46 South Clark St., Chicago. 

H.C FISH. General Land Agent 127 Vine St., Cincinnati. 

H. L. CARGILL, District Agent 122 Market St., Philadelphia. 

W. E. TUSTIN. District Agent 154 oth Ave., Pittsburgh. 

H. KAHLO & CO., District Agents 46 Madison St.. Toledo. 

J. R. WATSON, New England Agent 197 Washington St., Boston. 

Sub-Agencies in New England. 

MAINE. VERMONT. 

Pearl & Webb, 24 W. Market Sq., Bangor. A. E. Bosworth, Springfield. 

Rollins, Lorin & Adams, 22 Exchange St., Geo. O. Guild, Bellows Falls. 

Portland. Wm. S. Newton, Brattleborough. 

A. Bailey, Gardiner. J. W. Page, Montpelier. 
J. F. Boothbv, Lewiston. 

B. F. Eaton /Skowhegan. MASSACHUSETTS. 

D. W. C. Fulsom, Bucksport. Ge0i A . Brown, 197 Washington St., Boston. 
Chas. H. Greenleaf, Bath. Baeheller & Pardons, Market St., Lvnn. 

T. A. Gilkey, Belfast. G eo. w . Aborn. Wakefield. 

S. S. Ireland, Dexter. c . Jt Bellamy, Chicopee and Chicopee Falls. 

G. F. Jennings, Farmington. L . H . Cook, Milford. 

C. B. Morton, Augusta. j. F . Cotting, Marlborough. 
B. I. Weeks, Rockland. E . ^T. Dickerman, Westfield. 

__„, „ . ^^^^^^^^ Chas. M. Dinsmore. Clinton. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. H> L . Fo llansbee. Gloucester. 

J. J. & G. W. Barrett. Littleton. J. W. Gay, Jr., Winchendon. 

E. C. Converse, Newport. Green & Son, Fall River. 
Crawford & Tolles, Great Falls. Hatch & Co., New Bedford. 
Henry Judkins, Claremont. Daniel Hooke, Haverhill. 
Geo. Kimball, Keene. Arthur H. Jones, Atbol. 
Geo. B. Prescott, Dover. Waldo Johnson, Webster. 
John G. Kiniball, Nashua. E. T. Jackson, Taunton. 

Lockey & Dennis, Fitchburg. 
RHODE ISLAND. Lockev & Dennis, Leominster. 

W. H. Crownineshield, Pawtucket. £. M. Phillips, Southbridge. 

E. G. Windsor, Providence. £, B Prescott, Holyoke. 

W. E. Potter & Co., Lowell. 
CONNECT ICUT Albert D. Swann, Lawrence. 

™- •, to- T T , r , -.o- John F. Spring, Greenfield. 

Wa £ T-^^l' Mecnamcs Savings H. A. Sa^-iUe, Rockport. 

Bank, Hartford. Oliver Walker, Northampton. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS 

To those who intend Emigrating to Colorado, San Ju.an Mines, and 
the Southwestern Territories. 
Read carefully, and if there is anything you do not understand, show this to the near- 
est Railroad Station Agent and he will explain. 

1. Emigrants are carried on regular first-class express trains with second-class ac- 
commodations at an average of about two cents per mile. 

2. No cars are chartered for the transportation of passengers. Every passenger must 
hold a ticket at the rates quoted, without reference to the number travelling in a partv. 

3. In case a party of thirty or upwards are travelling together, there will be no diffi- 
culty in securing a special car without extra cost above the price of the tickets ; but no 
reduction will be made on account of numbers. 

4. Always secure your tickets. as near your starring-noint as possible, and you will 
save both time and money. Our tickets are on sale at all the principal railroad offices in 
the country, and the Agent will ticket you by the route you desire. 

Passenger trains leave Kansas City' and Atchison every day in the year on the arrival 
of trains from the East. The connection is made in Union Depots, and there are no de- 
lays or omnibus transfers. The time to Topeka is 3 hours ; Emporia, 6 hours ; Newton, 10 
hours ; Wichita, 12 hours ; Hutchinson, 12 hours ; Sterling, 13 hours ; Great Bend, 14 hour- ; 
Lamed, 15 hours; Kinsley, 16 hours; Dodge City. 17 hours; Pueblo, 27£ hou:s; Colorado 
Springs, 29 hours ; Denver, 32 hours ; El Moro, 32+ hours ; Garland, 33 hoars. 

If this circular does not answer all your questions, write for additional details to 

M. L. SARGENT, W. F. WHITE, 

General Freight Agent, Gen'l Passenger and ticket Agent. 

Topeka, Kansas. Topeka, Kansas 



FARMS AND HOMES; FOR ALL 

2,500,000 

ACRES OF CHOICE LANDS FOR SALE 

„ IN THE = — 

IN SOUTH-WEST KANSAS, 

BY THE 

11 ITOffii • m Fl LI CO. 



THE MOST DESIRABLE ROUTE 

. TO = 



1# 



AND ARIZONA 

IS BY THE A. T. & S. P. R. R. . 

IT IS 

UNRIVALLED for COMFORT for TOURIST TRAVEL 

BY ANY ROAD IN THE COUNTRY. 

NO CHANCE OF PULLMAN CARS 

= FR()M THE 

MISSOURI RIVERjLisrMOUNTAINS 

"Gl I N us for the admiration it excited at the Centennial, at Philadelphia 

. t ■ gurar line of coaches, built expressly for this road, and all the 

anient, magnificent finish, and perfect arrangement. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




016 094 353 1 • 





